The Flare Zone
by Tivae
Summary: Cleo, short for Cleopatra, an OC character, comes up in the Box. If you've read the books or seen the movies, you'll notice I combined them. It's still a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy. It's focus is on Group C, which has girls and boys. There is violence, so I rated it T. I'm also an amateur writer, so if it's not exquisite content, you should know I'm working on it.
1. Chapter 1

**_Prologue_**

 _It was a normal day in the Glade, 4 months after the first Gladers came up. It was a nice, sunny day, the weather perfect as usual. There were Gladers all around the Glade, working and resting. The cooks were preparing lunch, the Runners were in the Maze, the track-hoes were in the fields, and the slicers were at the Meatrack. The newbie alarm was blaring, the sound echoing across the Glade and bouncing off the walls of the Maze, making the ivy tremble, and the ground shake from the Box's arrival. A tall, Hispanic boy led three people to the chute, a muscular Australian boy, a blond girl, and a short skinny freckled girl. The 39 Gladers present were all gathering around the Box chute. 19 girls, and 20 boys stood waiting in silence as the box made it's trip to the top. When it finally arrived, they opened the doors and the boy jumped down into the box to welcome the Greenie._

 ** _Chapter 1_**

I woke up in pitch darkness, my eyes were sore and my heart was racing. I frantically felt around my surroundings to find out where I was. It seemed to me that I was in a big metal box, big enough to stand up in. As I felt around, I realized the box also had crates and sacs edging the center. Then I realized I was moving upwards. I tried to remember how I got there, and couldn't. I couldn't remember anything. My brain felt like a giant empty pit. This freaked me out so much, I started screaming.

"HEY! SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Suddenly, the box slammed to a halt, throwing me against the ceiling. I heard faint noises, muffled by the exterior of the box, then the light of day blinded me as the top of the box opened.

I looked up and saw about 40 people staring at me. A lean, muscular, dark-skinned boy leaped down into the box. I scooted away from him.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked him.

He smiled. "Name's Will. Welcome to the Glade, Greenie."

He reached out his hand. After a moment's hesitation, I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. Then I suddenly felt myself overwhelmed with questions.

"Why can't I remember anything? Where are we? Why are we here? Who-".

The words flowed out of my mouth before I could stop them. Will held up his hand to silence me, his shoulders gently shaking with laughter.

"Slim it nice and calm there, Greenbean. You'll remember your name soon enough. It's the only thing, though."

He turned around and lifted himself out of the box. I hesitated, then followed.

Once I had been rushed through introductions with the forty or so people standing around where I'd arrived, Will took me on a tour of the Glade. He pointed to some Gladers working in a garden. "We all do our parts, keeping the lot of us alive. You'll find what job best suits you, but that starts tomorrow."

He led me over to two, big, sturdy wooden buildings that looked like the Gladers had built them. "This here area is called the Homestead," Will said, waving at the structures,

"it's where we sleep, and where the cooks cook. The one on your right is the girls, and the left is for boys."

He walked past them and pointed to a small wooden shed.

"And that over there is the Slammer. It's where we keep the shanks that aren't behaving."

He continued walking, and I noticed the Slammer had a lock.

I learned where the gardens, the forest called Bonewoods, the Meatrack barn, and the Box where I had first come up in. Will explained how each month they got a new Greenie, along with their weekly supplies. "What's out there?" I asked, pointing to a gap in the walls that surrounded the Glade.

Will looked over at me.

"Let's just say it's not safe out there. That's our number one rule: never leave the Glade." He said seriously.

I nodded, but still felt a little curious.

Will was leading me back to the Homestead for a bonfire when I suddenly remembered my name.

"It's Cleo!" I shouted, making him jump.

He turned around. "What the shuck?"

He stared at me, more shocked than angry.

"My name," I said excitedly, "it's Cleo."

I smiled. He smiled back.

"Well then, welcome home, Cleo!"

A couple other Gladers cheered. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to see a boy and a girl sprinting through the gap in the walls.

"Who are they? I asked, pointing.

Will followed my gaze.

"Oh, those shanks are Runners." he said mildly, like it didn't matter.

"They run through the Maze in shifts, mapping it, memorizing it, looking for a way out." He sighed.

I hesitated.

"But wait, I thought you said no one was allowed out of the Glade, and what, we're stuck in a giant maze?" I was very confused.

Will sighed again. "Only Runners are allowed into the Maze, and that's because they are the smartest, fastest, and strongest Gladers."

I was about to ask another question when I heard a loud metallic screech. My head shot up, looking for the source. Then the gaps started to close, and I realized they were giant stone doors sliding shut. I was so stunned I almost forgot how to talk. Almost.

"How do they do that? Why? Is that why the Runners come back?"

I was tossing questions at him like dodgeballs. He nodded towards the walls.

"We don't know how them doors work, and they close every night. But that's not the reason they come back."

I was about to ask him why they did then, when I heard a distant noise. It was a squeaky roar that sent shivers down my spine.

"Wha-, what the-, what was that?" I could barely get the words out.

Will stared ahead with blank eyes. "We call 'em Grievers, and they're the reason the Runners come back. We've lost many fine Gladers to them, but they only come out at night. If you don't make it back before the doors close…"

He trailed off, seeming unwilling to finish. He took a deep breath.

"Well, let's just say no one's survived the night." He stood up.

"But that's enough questions for one day. Come meet the Runners."

He gestured towards them, and they came jogging up to them.

"This be the new Greenie, eh?" Commented the boy as they got nearer.

Will nodded.

"Well then, welcome to the Glade, newbie!" He said over his shoulder as they passed.

Later, I was sitting by myself at the fire. I looked up, startled, when a voice spoke to me.

"Hey there Greenbean."

A tall, blonde girl was standing next to me, holding out a cup of amber liquid. I nodded my thanks as I took the cup. The girl sat down next to me.

"Cleo, was it?" She asked.

I nodded again.

"Well, I'm Victoria. Nice to meet you."

I smiled, then took a sip of the drink. It burned my throat and made my nose sting and my eyes water. I hastily spit it out.

"Eugh, what was that?" I gasped.

Victoria smiled.

"That's a liquor mixture, a specialty of that guy."

She pointed at a dude with red hair arm wrestling a really buff guy.

"His name is Addy. Don't let him challenge you to an arm wrestle."

They watched as he slammed the other guys arm onto the table. The crowd cheered. Victoria snorted, and rolled her eyes. I giggled, she smiled and we burst out laughing.

"Do girls think everything is funny?" asked a deep voice with a slight accent.

I whirled around. There was a boy, about 16 or 17 years old standing behind them. He had long-ish dirty blonde hair, dark eyebrows and slightly tan skin. His eyes were a dark caramel color, and I could see the muscles through his long-sleeved shirt. I stood up to face him, and he was a couple inches taller than me.

"NO, we just find a lot more things to laugh about than guys." Victoria said defensively. He laughed.

"Calm down, Vic. I wasn't here to offend."

He turned to look at me. "Hey there, mate. The name's Abraham, but call me Gabe."

He smiles and held out his hand. I shook it.

"I'm Cleo." I said. He nodded.

"Better get some sleep then, Greenie. Got a long day tomorrow."

He nodded at Victoria, then walked away. I watched him go.

"Huh. he seemed pretty nice." I commented.

Victoria looked at me.

"Yeah, but he can be annoying sometimes." She sighed.

"And he was right. We'd better get to sleep." She led the way to the Homestead.

There was a hammock set up next to Victoria's for me. I laid down, and drifted off to sleep.

The next couple of days passed in a blur. I tried being a cook, a track-hoe, a med-jack, and a slicer. I didn't like any of the jobs, and I thought myself lucky I wasn't a vegetarian yet after the trip to the Meatrack. On my fourth day, however, was the Mapper's turn to teach me. The Maproom was a solitary building set far off into the woods. When I entered, Victoria, who was busily studying one of the maps, looked up and smiled.

"Hey there, Greenbean!" She called as she waved me over.

Victoria briefed me on the Maze and how it works.

"There are 8 outer sections to the maze." She said, pointing at the map.

" A different section opens up each day. There's a pattern, and that's what we're trying to figure out." She gestured towards the trunks full of maps.

I walked over and plucked a paper from the top of the pile. The walls of the Maze were etched in black coal. That suddenly gave me an idea. I looked out at the ivy covered walls. I turned to face Victoria.

"Have you-" I started but Victoria interrupted me.

"Tried it." She said, not even bothering to look up from her work.

"Whatever you can think of, we've tried it." She walked back over to the trunks.

I stood there, disappointed. Then Victoria looked up at me.

"You gonna help or not?" she asked.

I sighed, and walked back over to the papers.

I was sitting on my hammock, and was wondering about the maps. I decided to go to the Maproom and see if I could find a clue. The sun was setting as I walked through the forest, making the trees look like fire.

But as I reached the building, I immediately realized something was off. The door was cracked open, when it should have been closed. Slightly spooked, I crept up to the door and peeked in. I had to stifle my gasp. Inside was the Runner who'd talked to me earlier on the first day.

He was going from trunk to trunk, viciously tearing apart the maps. He was muttering to himself, and making low, crying noises. He was shaking slightly, and a small spiderweb of black veins blossomed up his neck. He looked completely insane.

I tried to slowly back away, but stepped on a stick that snapped with a loud cracking sound. The guy inside whirled around, and spotted me. I turned and ran, not stopping to look back. I raced through the forest, my heart pounding faster than my feet.

I heard the grunts and snaps as the guy chased me. I had almost reached the edge of the woods when he suddenly lunged at me, grabbing my ankle and making me stumble. I whirled around and knocked his legs out from under him.

He crashed to the ground, but was still holding my foot, so he pulled me down with him. I screamed as I hit the forest floor, kicking him as hard as I could.

"Get the hell off of me!" I shouted at him.

I whipped my free leg through the air and smacked him in the side of the head. He grunted, and let go. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted off. I was running out of the woods when I spotted Victoria.

"HEY! VICTORIA!" I shouted at her.

Victoria turned around just as the dude flew out of the woods and slammed into me. He dug his fingernails into my arms to hold me on the ground.

"You had the key, and you gave it to them!" He snarled at me.

I heard shouts in the distance. The guy was going completely hysterical.

"You had it! You had it! YOU HAD IT!" He screeched, each inhuman wail getting louder and louder.

I was struggling to get him off me, kicking at his legs and stomach. He kicked me in the ribs and I yelped. He moved one of his hands to my neck, and began to squeeze. I coughed, and he squeezed harder.

Then, out of nowhere, Gabe appeared and slammed his shovel into the side of his head. The guy went limp, and I was able to shove him off. Gabe helped me stand up while I caught my breath.

"What the shuck happened to him? He just attacked me!" I asked, never taking my eyes off him. Gabe stared blankly at the boys unconscious body.

"He's been stung." He responded.

But it sounded more like a question than an answer. Other Gladers caught up and noticed what had happened. Will jogged up, with Victoria right behind him. She noticed me and ran over to me, pulling me into a giant hug.

"You okay? I called them after I saw this Slinthead attack you." She looked at the boy.

Then she gasped. "Will, pull up his shirt." She commanded.

Will looked at her, then nodded. He tugged up the boy's shirt, and I gasped before I could stop myself. There was a bloody puncture wound on his torso, with black veins snaking out from it. Will's expression went grim, and he whistled. Two Med-jacks hurried over and picked up the boy. Victoria was standing next to me still.

"Poor David." She whispered. I looked at her.

"What?" I asked. Victoria looked at me.

"That boy's name is David, and he was actually our first Greenie." She shook her head sadly, then wandered away.

I was about to follow her, but when I took a step, the ground started to spin. I stopped and clutched my head. Gabe noticed.

"You alright there, mate?" He asked. I nodded.

"I'm fine." I responded.

I walked after Victoria, but then the world turned upside down and I passed out.

I opened my eyes, squinting against the light. As soon as my eyes adjusted, I took in my surroundings. I was lying on a small cot, and there were shelves lining the walls of the room. On each shelf was a collection of plants and bottles, all neatly labeled. The whole room was clean and otherwise bare. I was sitting up just as the door in the corner of the room opened.

A skinny girl with brown hair braided all the way down her back stepped into the room, carrying a tray. Her pale skin was dotted with freckles. When she noticed me watching her, she smiled. "I'm so glad you're awake. My name's Elizabeth, but just Beth, if you would."

She walked over and set the tray down next to me. I noticed for the first time it had a plate of food on it. The girl, Beth, handed me the plate and a fork. Then she quickly checked my temperature and pulse.

"Looks like you're all good." She exclaimed cheerfully. I paused my eating.

"What happened?" I asked. Beth shrugged.

"I'm guessing your lack of air flow shut your brain down."

She got up to leave, but I stopped her.

"No, I mean what happened to that David kid? He looked like he'd been to hell and back." When I asked that, Beth froze halfway to the door.

She turned around slowly. "He got stung. By a Griever. That's why the Maze is dangerous and why we don't let newbies out there."

Suddenly I noticed a small sound. It was like crying, but more raw. Then the screaming started.

A horrifying wail echoed through the building, sending shivers through every part of my body. I looked at Beth.

"What. The. Hell. Was. That." I stared at her.

She looked at me, her eyes filled with sadness. "It's called the Changing. It's what happens when a person gets stung by a Griever. My Med-jacks are trying their best, but tonight he'll be in the slammer, then banished tomorrow at sundown."

She looked away quickly, her eyes filling up with tears. Then she hurried out of the room. I just sat there, stunned. Then I decided to leave, mainly because I couldn't stand to hear David's horrible screams anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

Later I was taking a walk through the forest. I heard a shout behind me. I turned around, and saw a girl jogging up to me. It was Susan, the Keeper of the Runners.

"Hey, Greenie! Wait up!" She shouted.

I slowed my pace until the other girl caught up.

"I'm sorry about what happened with David." She began.

I opened my mouth, but she continued.

"But I noticed how shucking fast you ran. You'd make a good Runner."

I looked up in surprise.

"Really?" I asked, a little bit shocked.

Susan grinned and nodded. "You're strong, smart, and obviously fast. In fact, I think I'll ask Will to call a meeting later."

I stared at her. "You being serious right now?

Susan laughed. "I never lie. C'mon, let's see if we can find Will."

Then we walked out of Bonewoods, and headed towards Homestead. We found Will in deep conversation with the Bricknicks about the leak in the Meatrack shed.

"All the meat's gonna rot if you shanks can't fix a shucking hole." He noticed me and Susan standing there, and dismissed the Bricknicks.

"Go fix that hole, you slintheads."

They walked off to get their tool. Will turned to them.

"What can I do for you ladies?" He asked drily.

Susan took a deep breath.

"Call a Gathering, Will." She told him.

He looked back and forth between her and me, then shrugged.

"Fine, but you better have a good reason for it."

Later, at the Gathering, all the Gladers, well, gathered in a big round building. The Keepers sat in the middle.

Susan stood up. "The reason I had Will call a Gathering tonight, is because I think our new Greenie has found her job."

A couple cheers from the crowd followed that statement. Susan waited for silence before she continued.

"I think she should be a Runner."

Absolute silence followed that.

Then that kid, Addy, stood up. "She's been here for a week! How the shuck is she going to survive the Maze?" He shouted.

A couple rumbling murmurs followed Addy's question. Will stood up.

"You have a good point, Addy, but she was able to outsmart, outrun, and overpower one of our best Runners. I think she'd be up for it."

His gaze searched the crowd until they found me. I was completely shocked. Addy coughed. "Yeah, right. The only reason she's still not with the Med-jacks is because Gabe hit David over the head with a shucking shovel."

He followed Will's eyes, and glared at me. That's when Abraham chose to stand up.

"Would you rather David have killed her? Because that's what it seems like your implying here, Mate." He shot at Addy.

Shouting broke out within the room. Will shouted for silence while Addy stuttered for a comeback. When the whole room was finally quieter, Will cleared his throat. Then he looked directly at me .

"I say we make her a Runner. All in favor, raise your hand."

I was amazed at how many people raised their hand. More than half the room's hand was up, so the choice was clear. Will smiled at me.

" You'll start tomorrow, Greenie." He announced.

The whole room it seemed cheered for me. But all I could think was: I'm a Runner.

I woke up to Susan gently shaking me.

"Rise and shine Greenie. First day in the Maze!" She whispered.

She handed me a bread roll and an apple.

"Eat, get dressed, and do it as fast as you can. Meet me at the Maproom as soon as you're done." She said.

I nodded, then got to work on getting myself ready. I haven't gone back to the Maproom since the incident with David. As I walked through the forest, it occured to me why they call it Bonewoods. All the trees looked like giant bones stuck into the ground. With leaves growing from them.

When I reached the small hut, I found Susan inside. She was studying a huge map that looked like it mapped out the whole Maze.

"Hey, Susan." I said, "why did you want to meet me here first?" I asked her.

She turned around. "To show you what section we'll be running today." She responded, pointing at the map.

"So… what section are we running?" I asked.

She showed me a part of the map that said Section 3. I nodded, and then we left the Maproom. The doors to the Maze were just opening. I turned around at the sound of screaming. It was coming from the Slammer, and that's when I remembered David was going to be Banished tonight. Right before we started running, I stopped Susan.

"What happens when you banish somebody?" I asked her. She looked at me.

"We stick 'em outside the Glade for the night. Wait for the Grievers to get them." She responded gruffly.

I was about to comment, but she gestured to me with her hands. It was time to go into the Maze.

The huge ivy covered walls towered above us as we ran through the twisting corridors. Susan led, apparently she had the whole place memorized. We ran the whole way to the outer section without stopping. When we got there, we took a break to drink some water and eat a little food. Then we kept running towards our destination. We passed a way that ended in a huge black hole.

"What's that over there?" I managed between puffs of air.

Susan looked over her shoulder. "That's the Cliff. Come on, keep up."

We kept running, past different walls and different turns. When we reached a big open space, Susan pointed up. I followed her gaze and saw a giant 3 painted on the wall, high up.

"Did you guys put that there?" I asked. Susan shook her head.

"How do you think we got the idea to number them? That was always there." She started running again, and I followed her.

We got back to the Glade a couple minutes before it started to close. I noticed Susan checking her watch.

"Is there a certain time the doors close?" I asked her. She nodded.

"They close every night at 7 exactly." She had just finished speaking when the doors started closing.

We jogged back up the hill to Homestead, and saw a group of Gladers at another door. That's when I heard the screaming and pleading, and my stomach twisted. It was the banishment of David. I decided to not go watch, since I'd probably never forget it.

Me and Susan kept walking towards the buildings, wanting to forget what was going on. We could still hear Davids screams even after the doors closed. Then they stopped. And that was probably the worst part of it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A year or two had past since I had arrived at the Glade. Plenty of Greenies had come, including my new friends Joan and Charlie. Joan was tall and had long black hair she usually kept in a hairdo. Charlie was shorter, had tanner skin, and bright blue eyes. More Gladers than I would have liked died. Susan was taken by a Griever, and Victoria was killed by a stung Glader. Joan was a Runner until an incident with her leg prevented her from being able to run ever again.

Since Susan's death a month after I became a Runner, I became Keeper of the Runners. I've been so since. But I remember standing outside the maze doors, waiting for Susan to come back. She never did. The Runner who had been her buddy had ran back and told us she had been taken by a Griever. Later that night, the girl attacked Victoria in the Bonewoods, stabbing her with a knife and causing fatal injuries. She was banished at sundown and Victoria was buried the next morning. It just….. made me different. And even with all of my experience, I never would have guessed what happened next.

It was 19 months after I became Keeper, when our newbie alarm rang. Now this was standard protocol, nothing out of the ordinary. It was this sweet girl, She asked us to call her Bits, short for Brigitts. She was taller than me, but had short blonde hair with lighter streaks.

I sort of began to think of her as a little sister. But, only a week after that little shank arrived, everything went bad.

I was out running the Maze, standard looping pattern, when I found a piece of cloth. It was a tan tank top with holes and rips in it. I knew it was Susan's. I also knew that a Griever took her, so if her clothes were here…. I heard a distant, clicking noise. I whirled around, and saw a Griever at the end of the corridor. I bolted off in the opposite direction.

I was trying to do a U-turn, loop around and head for the Glade, but the Griever followed me. I decided to take the long route, so it wouldn't get to the Glade in time. I was running so fast, doing calculations in my head, I didn't realize it wasn't behind me anymore. I turned a corridor, and it leaped at me from the side. It knocked me down and pinned me against the floor.

I grabbed a knife from my pack to protect myself. One of it's robotic arms had a serrated dagger, and before I knew what was happening, it sliced down. I screamed as it cut through my side. I lashed out, plunging my knife into its belly. It let out that squeaky roar and it was distracted long enough for me to viciously kick it off and start running again. But the wound was deep, I was losing blood every second, and I was starting to slow down. I turned a corner and saw Gladers standing on the other side of the door. Charlie shouted;

"Hey look! Cleo's back!" But then they noticed.

"Wait, she wasn't wearing a red shirt before…" Joan squinted.

Then they realized what was going on, and they tried to rush into the Maze. Several Gladers had to hold them back. I heard a loud shout, and saw several guys restraining Gabe.

"She's not going to make it by herself!" he screamed. "Let me help her!"

He struggled to get free, but the boys held him firmly. Then the doors started to close. My friends were all screaming, urging me to go faster, but my wound was burning. I collapsed on the ground.

I heard a shout, and saw Gabe rushing towards the closing doors. I held up my hand, and shook my head. He stopped.

I smiled weakly. "I love you." I said.

Then everything went black, and the doors shut.

"NOO!" screamed Gabe.

He pounded his fists on the solid stone doors, then fell to his knees, sobbing. Charlie and Joan stopped struggling, all the fight inside them was gone.

All the other Gladers just sat around, their faces grim masks of sorrow. Finally someone said something. It was Will.

"I'm calling a Gathering in 30 minutes. Eat, rest, do whatever the shuck it is you need to do." He ordered, then he wandered over in the direction of the forest.

Bits was standing off to the side, feeling sad, but not quite sure what had just happened. Charlie and Joan took her to explain, even if they really didn't want to.

Thirty minutes later, most of the Gladers had gathered in the room. Gabe sat next to Will, his face emotionless as he stared into nothing. Will was trying to comfort him.

"She still might be alive." He tried.

Gabe shook his head. "No one's survived the night out there. And she was wounded." he sighed, then cupped his head in his hands.

His shoulders shook softly, and Will decided it was best for him to just let it all out.

Once all the Gladers were there, Will stood up and shushed the crowd.

"As you all know, Cleo didn't make it back from the Maze today." He said, his voice trembling slightly.

He took a breath and continued. "There's a small chance she might still be alive, but in case she's not, we need to appoint a new Keeper for the Runners."

After he said that, people started shouting their suggestions, but Will held up his hand to silence them.

" I never said it was up for discussion. Cleo was a great Keeper, she's been that since Susan died."

He looked at Charlie. "Charlie, you've been here almost as long as her. I appoint you as the new Keeper of the Runners." He said, then sat down.

He sighed. "Now the rest of you shanks, no complaining." He said, looking directly at Addy.

"And leave. Now." He hunched over, his chin resting on his hands.

The other Gladers looked at each other, then nodded. They all exited the room as quietly as they could. The only ones remaining were Joan, Charlie, Bits, and Gabe.

Will looked up at them. "Why the shuck did it have to be her?" He asked miserably.

The others realized he'd known her for two years since she got there. Gabe sighed, his eyes still slightly red.

"I don't know, man. I just hope when the doors open tomorrow, she'll still be there." he said, his voice cracking.

That's when Bits chose the absolutely perfect moment to pipe up.

"Why do you guys miss her so much? She seemed really like a kind of put-downer to me." She asked with genuine curiosity.

Joan looked up sharply, ready to scold her for asking such an insensitive question, but Will nodded. He looked at Gabe, because they had both been in the Glade when Cleo first arrived. "She wasn't always that way." He said sadly. Bits cocked her head, intrigued.

"What happened, then?" She asked.

This time Gabe answered her. "It was way before you came up here, Mate. Her first friend in this shuck-hole was a girl named Victoria. Victoria was Keeper of the Map-makers." He said, his face carved in sorrow.

Will was staring at the ground, lost in his memories. Bits looked at them, confused.

"But I thought she was keeper of the Map-makers?" She asked, pointing at Joan.

Gabe nodded. "She is. I said Victoria was."

He answered, Joan and Charlie could see he was losing a little of his patience. Bits still looked confused.

Gabe sighed. "Victoria died, Greenie! That's the only reason we replace Keepers!" He said angrily, his voice rising a notch.

Bits flinched. Charlie noticed.

"Calm down, Gabe. She's only been here a week." She snapped at him.

Then her voice softened. "We all miss her, but there's nothing we can do except hope she's still alive." She patted his shoulder, and he nodded.

He looked at Bits. "Sorry Greenie. It's just…. It's so much like how Vic died." He said shakily. Bits opened her mouth, but Gabe continued.

"And I'm going to tell the shucking story, so sit back down." She did, and then his face went grim. "It was a little bit over two weeks after this shank got here."

He swatted at Charlie playfully, who ducked to avoid it.

"Stop treating me like your shucking little sister, Gabe!' She yelled at him.

He shrugged, then went back to his story. "Anyways, the three of them were sitting around a bonfire one night. Then they heard screaming. Cleo recognized it as Victoria's, so she ran to Bonewoods, where the screaming was coming from. I saw her, and ran over to the fire. Will was holding these two back. I asked what was going on, and they told me Cleo was getting herself into danger. Normally that's not anything new, but I heard the screams. I was scared." He said. Then Will spoke up. "Yeah, then you slinthead yelled at me for keeping these two safe."

He gestured towards Charlie and Joan. Gabe rolled his eyes.

"Let me finish. We were so busy fighting, we didn't notice her running back out of the woods. Joan spotted her, though, and we all ran to find out what happened. Turns out, she was crying, and she ran into my arms and started sobbing. See, she was really upset, so I was trying to comfort her. The others were trying to get information. We got enough to realize Victoria had been attacked by a stung Glader. Will over here grabbed a tranquilizer gun and went hunting for the lunatic. She was banished the next day at sundown." He took a deep breath, his body trembling.

Bits just stared at him. "Stung by what?" She asked.

Will looked up at her. "Seriously? You don't know?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"Well, then, she got stung by a shucking Griever." Will responded.

Then he and Gabe stood up to go, but Bits had one more question.

"Was she stung?" She asked, and they all immediately knew she was talking about Cleo.

Will shook his head. So did Gabe.

"If you ever see a Griever, and you better pray to the gods you never do, you'll understand everything, mate." Then they walked outside.

The next day, all the Gladers were gathering around the doors before they even opened. It seemed as though everyone was holding their breath as the doors opened, revealing the truth. Cleo was gone forever. They started wandering away, disappointed, when Joan noticed something. She tugged on Gabe's shirt sleeve.

"What?" he asked, his voice a hollow pit of sadness. Joan pointed at the Maze floor.

"What do you see?" She asked him. He squinted.

"Nothing." he responded. Joan nodded.

"Exactly. There was a girl bleeding to death right there last night. So why isn't there a blood stain? Because last time I checked, grievers don't have shucking mops." She raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged.

"Maybe you should tell Will, but I'm more focused on the fact there was a girl bleeding to death last night." he said, his eyes watering. "But she's not here anymore."

He shook his head sadly, the slowly started trudging up the hill towards the gardens. Joan sighed, then went to find Will.

"What the shuck are we supposed to do about it?" Will asked after she told him her theory. "There's something strange going on in that place, and I want to know what it is." She said, her eyes boring into him. Then a voice spoke up behind them.

"I agree with her." Charlie said as she walked up. Joan raised an eyebrow at Will. He sighed. "Maybe you're right, but Charlie, your Keeper of the Runners now. You should be in the maze." He reminded her, but she shook her head.

"I don't know what kind of klunk is going around inside your head, but the Keeper's shift was yesterday." She said, her voice hitching a little.

Will's eyes were blank. "I don't need a reminder, Charlie! Now both of you, go, now." He said harshly, then turned away from them.

They looked at each other, then nodded. They quietly left the room, leaving Will to think about all the friends he'd lost.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

A few months later,

Charlie was running out of the Maze. Will greeted her as she entered the Glade.

"Find anything different?" He asked her. She shook her head. Then she noticed he was acting strange.

"What's going on?" She asked him. He looked at her weirdly.

"You just came through the doors, right?" He gestured towards the doors. She nodded. He kept going.

"Look at your watch." He told her. She looked down.

"It's 7:15. Wha-?" She began, but Will didn't let her finish.

"But the doors are still open." He said, pointing at the wall.

She realized what he was saying.

"Why haven't they bloody closed yet?" She asked him. He shrugged.

He looked calm, but she could see panic in his eyes.

"I've already ordered the Builders and Bricknicks to build barriers around the other doors." He said. Charlie looked at him sharply.

"There's other doors?" She asked. He nodded.

"They just opened." he said.

"Well shuck." Charlie said as she stared at the four gaps spaced out around the Glade. Then they heard the Grievers. They looked at each other in panic, then Will said, "hide." And he ran off to tell the others. Charlie glanced around, then rushed off towards Homestead. On her way there, she bumped into Joan.

"What's going on, Charlie?" She asked. Charlie grabbed her arm.

"I'll tell you when we're safe from the bloody Grievers." She said, and pulled Joan along with her. When they reached Homestead, Charlie looked around, then pushed open the door and rushed inside.

"What the shuck is going on out there, Charlie? Let me go and tell me!" Joan yelled at her. Charlie glanced at her.

"The buggin' doors won't close." She said stiffly.

Then she dragged Joan upstairs to a window. The Bricknicks and Builders were quickly blocking the doors, and the track-hoes and some Runners were handing out weapons. Then the first Griever came. It scuttled down the long corridor of the Maze, and rammed into the barrier. At first it held, and knocked the Griever back, but it whirled around and charged, smashing right through. They heard shouts and saw other grievers breaking through the barriers.

"Bloody hell." Charlie muttered under her breath.

The Grievers had started attacking the Gladers. She saw the Grievers picking up kids and taking them back into the Maze, saw them stinging others, and others they just sliced through with metal claws. Then they heard a loud shout, louder than the others. They whirled around and looked out another window.

A Griever had pinned down Abraham.

He had been handing out weapons: shovels, hoes, knives, and spears. He had been heading towards the Homestead, when he heard a clicking noise behind him. He whirled around just as a Griever pounced on him. He shouted and whacked at its claws with his shovel, trying to keep it away from him.

It roared, and a new set of weapons burst from beneath it's skin. They snapped and clicked, sharpened and grew until he realized there wasn't any way he'd survive it. The Griever was about to slice down, when it's body jerked forwards a little.

A spear pierced it's body the long way, the sharp tip only inches from his face, and covered in Griever goo. The Griever let out a high pitched scream, and flopped over, dead. Gabe was able to push it off, then he looked up and saw who threw the spear.

Me.

His face was complete shock. He took in my clean clothes, washed hair and bandaged side. His mouth was moving, but he wasn't saying anything. He just stared at me. I smiled.

"Hey there, Gabe. It's been a while." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

Then we ran for Homestead. When we got there, I shoved open the door and pulled him inside. It was really good to be back, after spending a month or two unconscious.

Of course, it felt like I never left, but I knew they'd thought I was dead, and have been for the past three months. We ran upstairs, and were greeted by the shocked faces of Joan and Charlie. They seemed just as surprised to see me as Gabe had.

Then eventually the shock passed over, and they pulled me into a giant group hug. They had tears streaming down their faces, and they were squeezing me like their life depended on it. Gabe was actually the first person to speak.

"Where the hell you been, Cleo? We all thought you were dead." I turned to look at him, my eyebrows raised.

"Seriously? There's a Griever apocalypse going on outside, and you want to know here I've shucking been?" I asked him.

And as if on a cue, a kid screams outside, and they heard distant Griever roars.

Then Bits bursts through the door. She skidded to a stop as soon as she saw me.

"I'm not even going to ask." She said. She turned towards the others.

"You guys need to be quick and come with me. Will's been stung."

That got everyone out in a hurry. We sprinted towards the Maproom, where the other Gladers were hiding out.

I led the way, a spear in my hand. I was jabbing and deflecting Grievers with it. Living solely in the Maze for a while had taught me not to be afraid of them, but also how to kill them. They had a mechanical heart, and if you destroyed that, the Griever died.

We reached the Maproom, to find a Griever crawling on top of it. The Gladers inside were trying to help Will, but also shying away from the Griever. I turned towards my friends.

"I got this. You guys go inside." They nodded, and ran towards the door.

I took a deep breath, then shouted at the Griever. "HEY YOU! OVER HERE YOU WICKED PET!"

And I ran at the Griever and slammed my spear into its head. I missed the heart, so it roared and whirled around, trying to dislodge me. I yanked out my spear and jumped back. Then I flipped around, and ran at a tree. The Griever followed me, which is exactly what I wanted it to do. I ran faster, then propelled myself up the tree. The Griever slammed into the trunk. I launched myself off the lower branch and stabbed my spear right through it's heart. It screamed, then collapsed. I jumped off it's back, then ran back to the Maproom. I was hoping the others had prepared the Gladers for the fact that I was not Griever chow, but apparently not. I burst into the room, and shut the door.

I turned around and found about 35 people staring at me. Will had already recovered enough from the sting that he was sitting up in the makeshift bed. I noticed the bandage on his leg, and from where the sting was, I could tell it hadn't made contact with major blood vessels, which meant he wasn't going to go through the Changing yet, for a few minutes anyways. He was just sitting there staring at me. I turned to look at Gabe.

"You guys didn't tell them I was coming?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"I wanted them to experience the same amount of shock we did." He said mildly. Will got his voice back.

"That was a shuck amount of surprise you experienced, then." He commented drily. Charlie snorted.

"She bloody saved this shank from one of them demon monsters out there." She turned to look at me.

"I don't know where you've been, but whatever happened, it made you into a complete badass." She smiled. I smiled back at them.

"I wasn't a badass before?" I asked lightly.

Then I heard a loud thump outside. I turned towards the door.

"Duty calls. See you guys later." Then I ran out the door, right as Will began the Changing.

After all the Grievers were gone, Charlie called a Gathering. Will had been propped up on a chair so that if he wanted, he could still voice his opinion. Charlie whistled, and the whole room went quiet. She stood up.

"You should all be aware of the fact that Cleo's back. If you didn't know, she's right there." She gestured towards where I was standing. There were a couple cheers, and I felt myself blushing slightly. Charlie walked over to Will's seat.

"I know you're probably in a load of shucking pain right now, but we need your opinion." She demanded him. He slightly opened his eyes.

"Fine. get on with it." He groaned. Charlie nodded.

"You all know I was appointed Keeper of the Runners after Cleo never came back." She said, deadpan. Some of the crowd nodded. She started pacing. Then she stopped and faced Will. "She's still alive, so does that mean she goes back to being the Keeper?" She asked him. The crowd went silent. Will sat up a little higher.

"Well, I think that might be something the two of you can talk about." Joan spoke out. Charlie considered this, then nodded.

"Alright, we're going to take a bloody vote. All in favor of Cleo being Keeper again, raise your hand." She demanded. Half the crowd raised their hands. Charlie bit her lip, thinking. Suddenly Will spoke up.

"I think we should make her second in command of the Glade." He suggested. Charlie turned towards him slowly.

"What?" She asked.

There were quiet murmurs in the background. Then Addy spoke up.

"She's been in the Maze for a couple of weeks from what I can tell. Why didn't she come back?" He shouted. I glared at him.

Out of all the things about the Glade, he was the one thing I didn't miss. I stood up.

"You rather me be dead, you slinthead?" I shot back at him.

His faced flushed, and he started stuttering. I held up my hand.

"No, don't even try." I turned around to face the rest of the crowd.

"You've seen what damage the Grievers did, how many Gladers they killed." I meet each pair of eyes.

"They're going to keep coming back. We need a plan on how to defend ourselves." I crossed my arms across my chest and waited. Bits spoke up then.

"What if Runners stayed in the Maze at night, now that the doors don't close?" She suggested. Charlie nodded.

"If those buggin' doors won't follow the routine, neither will we." She was about to keep going when Addy shouted.

"But what are we going to do with her? She's been gone for two months, and she comes back, and you make her second in command?" He pointed at me. Will nodded.

"Well, I trust her to run things better than most of these shanks." He waved his hand at the crowd. I smiled. Charlie nodded.

"Then it's settled. Since Will's gonna be out of commission for a while, and Cleo was just announced as second in command, Cleo's in charge until Will recovers. And Runners will stay the night out in the Maze. Mapper's working twice as hard, too. We need to get out of here." She nodded towards Joan and the other Mappers.

The crowd cheered, then they all went to work on repairing the damage the Grievers had done.

I organized the Bricknicks and the Builders on repairing buildings and re-building the barriers. The track-hoes were to salvage the crops that weren't trampled or covered with Griever slime. I didn't know what to do with the few Griever bodies, so I ordered the Baggers to take them to the Maze entrance and leave them in a pile. Hopefully scare away a couple of the things. A kid came up to me. I didn't know his name. I guessed he was a recent Greenie, came up after I was trapped. He seemed really nervous.

"Hi, um, I was just, um, wondering if you, were, um, the Cleo who, um, sort of, um, got taken by a, um, Griever?" He sort of asked quietly.

I said sort of asked, because the kid said um so much, it was hard to follow what he was actually saying. I sighed.

"Unfortunately. What about it?" I asked. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"It's just, um, that guy over there said he needed to, um, talk to you." He pointed over my shoulder. I turned around and saw Addy leaning against a tree. I sighed. This is going to be fun. I nodded stiffly at the boy, then got up and walked over to the tree. I lifted my chin.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked coldly. He sneered.

"Already comfortable with being leader, Cleo?" He snickered. I sighed.

"I have fought and killed shucking Grievers, Addy. I'm not afraid of you." I turned around to walk away.

"You know you can't hurt me, or you'll get banished!" He called after me.

"So would you!" I threw back over my shoulder. I heard him laughing behind me.

I rolled my eyes. That guy was so weird.

Later that day, I was sitting around a bonfire with Joan, Bits, and Gabe. Charlie was out in the Maze, and Will was still resting at the Med-jack's. I'm still a Runner, just not the Keeper anymore. It felt weird, following orders from Charlie, when it used to be the other way around. But I guess I can't complain, since I'm still alive. Anyways, I was sitting there, and then one of Addy's friends walked up.

"Have you guys seen Addy?" He asked. I squinted at him. He seemed to be awfully polite, not common for an Addy worshipper. Joan shook her head. The guy's frown deepened.

"I haven't seen him since this afternoon." He said worriedly. I shrugged.

"The slinthead is probably fine. Stop worrying and go do your job." I said. He glared at me.

"Like you guys are doing right now?" He gestured towards the log we were sitting on.

"My friend is missing, and if you shanks won't help, I'll find somebody who will." The guy turned around and began to storm off.

I rolled my eyes, got up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Kid, where the shuck do you think he'd be right now? He's not stupid enough to go into the Maze." I told him.

He eyed me suspiciously, then turned around and started walking off. I heard a rustling sound, and I turned to look at the woods. Addy was walking calmly out. I pointed at him, and shouted to the kid.

"See? He's fine." But as I said it, I noticed something was off. What I had at first took in as calmly strolling, I realized he was limping slightly. He kept shaking his head, and his arms were spazzing a little. My friends got up.

"What the shuck?" Gabe was staring at him. Addy was stumbling, his feet seemed to catch on every piece of grass. Joan snorted.

"Looks like he had too much of his liquor." She commented drily. Addy looked up, and I saw the veins in his neck.

"Holy shit, he's not drunk. He's been stung." I get up fast. I whirl around.

"Somebody get the Med-jacks. Now." I command. I turn around, and Addy has covered a considerable amount of distance, since he was limping so hard. Gabe grabbed my arm.

"We should stand back. Remember Vic." He said gently. I nodded. We all slowly backed up. Our movement must have caught his attention, because Addy looked up and saw us. He grimaced, and held up a hand. I squinted, and realized he was carrying something. Then I saw it was covered in slime. Griever slime. That's when it hit me.

He was holding a Griever's heart. He smiled at me in a triumphant way, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed on the ground. We rushed forward, and saw him shaking on the ground. His arms and legs were flying everywhere. His breathing was ragged and wet. Gabe cursed.

"He needs a Med-jack, now." He said. I nodded.

As I was turning around towards homestead, Addy's arm shot out and grabbed my ankle. I yelped and shook my foot, sure it was just a spazzing reflex. But I guess not, because then Addy yanked and pulled me down. I flipped around and was able to shake him off.

"What the hell, Addy?" I yelled at him.

His body was convulsing so hard, I thought he'd bite off his own tongue. Then he looked up at me. He sneered, which wasn't very pretty.

"I just proved you're not any better than the rest of us. I should be in charge!" He snarled.

I kicked him in the head, knocking him out. The Med-jacks arrived, and I stood up, brushing myself off. My friends were staring me. I looked at them.

"What?" I asked. Gabe shook his head.

"It's just I feel like this had something to do with that secret talk you two had earlier." He said, eyeing me suspiciously.

I sighed. If I tell them the truth, they're going to blame me. If I don't, they'll know I'm hiding something. I opened my mouth to say something, then I heard somebody shout:

"Hey, the Runners are back!"

I turned towards the nearest door, and saw Charlie and a boy who's name I forgot, running out of the Maze. They bent over to catch their breath. We jogged over to them.

"Hey. You shanks find anything interesting out there?" I asked as we got closer.

Charlie straightened up. "Was that Addy we just saw?" She asked, completely ignoring my question. Gabe nodded.

"He went into the Maze to kill a shucking Griever and prove he was better than this slinthead." He said, playfully nudging me. I glared at him.

"Are you implying that it's my fault he got himself stung?" I demanded.

He avoided my eyes. "No, but it would have helped if you hadn't come swingin' in killing Grievers left and right." He responded.

"Well then, maybe next time I'll just let the damn thing kill you." I snapped before walking away.

"Wait, Cleo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" He started after me, but Will grabbed his arm and shook his head.

"Just let her be alone for a while, man." He said gently. Gabe paused, then nodded slowly.

I took a walk around the Glade to calm myself down. After traveling from the box to Homestead to the Slammer, I realized I was re-tracing the path I took on my first day in the Maze. I went down to the Meatrack barn, the gardens, then up to Bonewoods. I only realized how long I'd been walking when I reached the graveyard.

I swallowed hard, then walked over to Victoria's grave. It wasn't hard to find, considering that most of the dead Glader's bodies were never found. I kneeled next to the cross and started to cry.

"Victoria, I miss you so much. I wish you were here. " I sobbed, my tears making dark spots in the dirt.

I had been sitting in the forest for a while, my elbows resting on my knees and my face buried in my arms. I was crying so hard, I didn't hear the approach of footsteps behind me. It wasn't until Gabe kneeled down behind me and wrapped his arms around me that I realized I wasn't alone. I leaned into his warmth, glad he was there. I sniffed and looked up at him.

"Gabe, I'm sorry, but-" I started to apologize, but he shushed me.

"It's okay, Cleo. I know this is hard for you." He said quietly.

I rested my head in his lap, and he stroked my hair.

"Sometimes I wonder what they did to me." I muttered right before I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

I woke up, disoriented at first. I thought I was trapped, then I realized I was just bundled in a heap of blankets. I squirmed around until I had freed myself from my cocoon. I sat up in my hammock and looked around. Joan was sitting in the corner, reading a book. Gabe was dozing in a chair next to me. When I sat up, Joan marked the corner of her page and set the book down.

"Heard you said something really weird that bothered that snoozy shank over there." She said incredulously, raising an eyebrow at me.

I probably looked very confused, because she sighed.

"When you guys were having your little apologies out in the woods, you said something right before you conked out." She said, standing up.

"What did I say?" I asked her.

She walked over to me. "You said 'Sometimes I wonder what they did to me'." She said.

I looked up at her. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

Joan shrugged, and went back to her seat.

"I dunno, you're the one who said it." She said, crossing her legs and propping her book on them.

Then Gabe groaned and covered his face.

"Can you shanks just shut up and let a guy sleep?" He mumbled, then shifted in his chair and went back to sleep.

Joan rolled her eyes at me, and I giggled. Then I yawned and layed back down.

I woke up later in the night. It was completely dark except for a small candle on a desk. Sitting at that desk was Will. He was busily studying a torn-up paper.

I shifted around so I could sit, and he looked up.

"You're awake." He commented.

I nodded, then looked at him suspiciously.

"Shouldn't you be resting in the Med-jacks?" I asked. He shrugged.

Then I heard a loud crash outside, and people screaming.

"Aw shuck, the Grievers." I tried to get off my hammock, but I couldn't move. I looked down and saw myself wrapped in chains. I looked up at Will.

"What the shuck are these for, Will? Let me out so I can help." I said. He shook his head.

"I can't let you do that, Cleo. Addy died a couple hours ago, and you're the reason he went into the Maze." He said calmly. I heard more screams, and Griever roars.

I struggled to free myself, but Will kept talking.

"Our number one rule is to never hurt another Glader. You disobeyed that rule." He stood up.

"I'm sorry, but more people are going to get hurt if you don't let me go right. Now!" I shouted at him.

Then a Griever busted through the wall, and grabbed him. I screamed and reached for his arm, but I still couldn't move, He just sat there, calmly, in the Grievers claws.

"It's all your fault, Cleo. You couldn't save him, now you can't save me." He stared at me. Then the Griever took him away.

I screamed and woke up.

I sat up in my hammock, drenched in sweat. I take a look around. Joan is asleep in the corner.

I look over and Gabe's chair is empty. I swung my legs over the side, and stood up as quietly as I could.

I walked over to the door and slowly opened it. A beam of light slashed over the floor as the door creaked open. I creeped out, then softly closed the door. I looked out at the peaceful Glade. It wasn't night yet, so the Grievers wouldn't be coming until later.

I spotted Will walking across the fields, and I called to him:

"Hey! Hey Will!" I waved my arms.

He looked up. "What?" He yelled back.

I sprinted down the hill towards him.

"How's Addy doing?" I panted once I reached him.

He looked at me sideways. "He's fine. Why?" He asked.

I shrugged. "There's no way he'd die though. Right?" I asked

Will raised an eyebrow at me. "No, I don't think so. Why are you so worried?"

"I just feel kinda responsible." I admitted. Will laughed.

"Cleo, it was his own stupid decision to go into the Maze, not yours." He looked at me seriously.

I nodded. "Okay, just making sure." I said, then walked back towards Homestead.

As I was nearing the buildings, I heard a whisper.

"Pst, Cleo!"

I whirled around, looking for whoever said that.

"Over here." I heard it again.

I turned around, frustrated.

"I don't know where 'here' is!" I whisper shouted.

I turned around again, and spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Gabe was kneeling under a bush.

"What the shuck are you doing down there?" I whispered at him, half laughing.

He looked around cautiously, then looked back at me.

"Come here, I need to show you something." He whispered, then crawled away under the bush.

I rolled my eyes. What the heck is this shank doing? I shrugged, then crawled under the bush after him.

We had been crouch-walking under a forest of bushes for a couple of minutes, when Gabe suddenly stood up in front of me and disappeared. I paused, then scrambled forwards. When I reached the edge of the shrubbery, I stood up.

I was looking at the back of the Slammer. I was very confused. What could Gabe possibly show me here? And where did he go, anyways?

I was just turning around to look for him, when he grabbed my shoulders and slammed my back against the shed.

"OW! What the shuck, Gabe?" I yelled at him. He put a finger against my lips to silence me.

"Shh, be quiet. I don't have much time." He whispered urgently.

I looked at him. "Don't have much time for what? And why did you bring me here?" I asked, confused.

He looked around quickly before answering. "I think I found a way out of the Maze." He said quietly.

I stared at him. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Because I wanted you to know before anyone else." He mumbled. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"But, why did we have to go all secret spy style and crawl through the shucking bushes to get here, and also, why here?" I questioned him.

He didn't respond to anything I was saying. He was just staring at me.

I looked at him. "Why are you just looking at me?" I asked.

He still didn't answer me, which was kind off starting to freak me out. I tried to scoot away, but he held out his arms on either side of me, so that I couldn't move. I sighed.

"Stop being creepy, Gabe, or I'll have to push you." I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

He slowly moved one of his arms away from the wall, and gently stroked my cheek. He smiled softly.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered, his eyes taking in every inch of my face. I caught my breath as he lifted my chin up to look at him.

Then he kissed me.

We were slowly walking back to Homestead, holding hands. When we were about a minute away, I gently shoved him into a tree.

"You never told me what you found. Did you just make that up so you could lure me away to kiss you?" I teased.

He shook his head slowly. "I do think I figured a way out. The kiss was a bonus, though." He smiled playfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Then tell me what your idea worth crawling through bushes is." I put my hands on my hips.

He nodded. "Okay. I think we can escape through the Cliff." He said.

I stared at him. "Are you shucking insane? We would fall to our deaths!" I softly slapped his cheek when I said that, to emphasize the pain.

He shrugged. "It was an idea, and you did listen to me." He started to walk away, but I blocked his path.

"No you don't. First you're going to tell me what your plan is, because I know you have one." I folded my arms across my chest.

Gabe sighed. "I was planning on telling the Gladers my plan at a Gathering tonight." He tried to push past me, but I grabbed his arm.

"But why tell me first, huh?" I asked him.

He shrugged off my hand. "Because I need your help to get up my courage enough to actually say it." He admitted.

"Well, you could have just said that, you big dope." I smiled at him.

I grabbed his hand and started walking towards Homestead again. But when we reached the wooden buildings, they were in complete panic. A Glader was running past us and I held out my hand to stop him.

"What the hell's going on?" I asked, motioning to the panic. They boy looked around quickly.

"Addy's gone! A Med-jack was going to check on him, and he wasn't there! And neither was any of the serum, he took all of it." The kid gushed out, then took off sprinting in the direction of the Meatrack barn.

I looked up and saw Will approaching. He waved us over.

"Where the hell have you two shanks been? We need your help!" He glared at us. Gabe was about to speak, but I spoke first.

"Talking about something important, but we need to find Addy and the serum before we tell you what that is." I shot back at him.

Will sighed. "Fine, but we will talk about this later. Right now, Gabe, I need you to take inventory to see if he took anything else." He said. Gabe nodded. Then Will turned to me. "And I need you to take a group of our best Runners to look for him in the Maze." He waved us away.

I looked at Gabe, then shrugged. "See you later, I hope." I said, turning around to go.

He grabbed my shoulder. "Cleo, wait."

I turned around, and he kissed me quickly.

"Please come back. I can't lose you again." He said quietly.

I smiled. "In case you've noticed, it's gonna take a lot more than a shucking Griever to kill me." I gave him a quick hug, then set off to find Charlie.

I found her with a couple Runners and Mappers in the Maproom. I walked up to her.

"Hey, so Will wanted us to go into the Maze to find Addy." I said.

She looked up. "Just us?" She asked.

I nodded. "Us and your best Runners. Tell them, and meet me at the door in ten minutes." I commanded. Then I turned around and walked out.

I was getting supplies from the cooks, in case we would be in the maze for a couple days. I had made four packs of food, drink, weapons, and batteries for our watches.

I met Charlie and her Runners at the entrance to the Maze. There were about eight of us total, so the four strongest would carry supplies.

After we were all organized, I nodded at Charlie and we set out. We passed through the inner circle, and then reached the outer sections.

But they were all open.

We slowed as we took in that fact that the Maze seemed to have stopped working.

Charlie turned around to look at us.

"We need to split up if we're going to find him. Each of you get a partner. One person with a bag team up with a person without a bag." She commanded. I hoisted my pack on my shoulder, and looked at her, sending a silent message with my eyes. She nodded at me.

"There are two sections per team. I will team up with Cleo, and we'll take sections 1 and 2." She said. They organized the rest, and soon we we're all spreading out in hopes of finding Addy, but I knew not all of us were going to survive.

Me and Charlie had just finished section 1, when she looked at her watch.

"Oh shuck, it's 7:03. Get ready for them bloody Grievers." She whispered. I nodded, tightening my grip on the spear I brought.

Then I had an idea. "Oh shuck, why didn't we make some sort of signal-call so the others would know when they find Addy?" I asked quietly. Charlie looked at me.

"You come up with all the bloody ideas after they would be useful?" She whispered back. I shrugged.

"Well, we can't do anything now, can we?" I pointed out.

Charlie huffed in annoyance, but didn't respond. We found a little cave-den behind a curtain of ivy. We crept inside and cleaned out spaces for us to sit. We ate a little bread and some cheese, but we didn't bring any meat in case the smell attracted the Grievers.

I had dozed off, and woke to the sound of machines. There was a shadow outside the ivy. The Griever was poking around outside our hiding spot.

I looked over at Charlie, who was fast asleep. She was breathing softly, and I hoped she didn't randomly snore.

I settled back into the warm spot I had made, listening to the Grievers sounds. They were slowly getting quieter and more distant, and even though I was drifting off to sleep, I realized it was leaving.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

The next day, we had covered both our sections and found nothing. We headed back for the Glade, when we passed the Cliff. I stopped.

"Do you think that could be a possible way out of here?" I asked. Charlie turned sharply.

"What? Down there? Are you bloody insane?" She demanded. I shrugged.

"Gabe thinks it could be a way out." I said. Charlie snorted.

"What does that bloody shank know? He's never even been out of the Glade." She shot down my suggestion.

I still ignored her and ran over to the steep drop. I looked down and only saw darkness. I turned around.

"Go ahead, I'll catch up. I've gotta do something first." I yelled over at her.

She hesitated, then nodded. I watched her as she started sprinting in the direction of the Glade.

I turned around to face the drop behind me. I bent down and searched for a rock to throw into the void. I gathered a small pile of pebbles, and started chucking them down. But the weird part was that some of them disappeared.

I figured out that there was a small section in the middle of the void that the rocks just disappeared into instead of doing something normal, like getting farther down as gravity pulled them.

I was just getting up to leave, when I noticed movement in the darkness below. I crouched to get a better look, and a knife whipped through the air, slicing a gash on my right cheek. I yelped and stumbled back. Then I got up and saw what was rising out of the abyss. A Griever.

It roared, and leaped at me. I scrambled backwards, then took off running. I could hear it screeching and the mechanics inside it whirling into action. As soon as I saw the Glade entrance, I screamed:

"EVERYBODY STAND CLEAR, THERE'S A GRIEVER!"

Several Gladers near the entrance looked up, and their eyes widened. They scrambled away from the entrance, shouting for help as they did so.

As soon as everybody was safe enough, I whirled around to face the charging mass of flesh and metal behind me. It screeched to a halt, surprised by my movement. I screamed and charged at it, hefting my spear in front of me.

The Griever shied away a little, then regained its senses and roared. It sprang at me, trying to crush me under its weight. I kneeled on the ground and pointed my weapon up. The Griever landed right on the sharp tip, which impaled it's heart. It screamed and wiggled, trying to save itself. Then it stilled and was dead.

I heaved upwards, throwing aside the Griever. I turned around and saw several Gladers standing just beyond the Maze. Will, Charlie, Gabe, Alex, Joan, and Bits were all included. I wiped the hair out of my face and smiled at them. I grabbed my spear and wrenched it out of the Griever with a sharp tug. Then I walked back to the Glade. When I stepped out of the Maze, Gabe rushed forwards to wrap me in his arms, but I held out my hand.

"No hugs until after I clean this gunk off." I said, motioning to the griever slime covering my body.

Gabe laughed. "Good idea."

I nodded, then handed him my spear and headed to the showers.

After I was clean from all the slime, I took a stroll to the Maproom. It wasn't to actually go to the Maproom, it was just to clear my head so I could relax for a couple minutes.

I was just aimlessly walking around in Bonewoods, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, and saw Gabe casually leaning against a tree.

"So you gonna tell me I was right, or do I have to say 'told you so'?" He smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, you weren't exactly right. The Cliff is just a Griever den." I pointed out.

"But if they can leave through there, maybe we could too." He suggested.

I crossed my arms. "Or it could be a dead end filled with Grievers. You don't shucking know." I turned around to keep walking. I had only walked a couple feet when Gabe came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

I yelped and gently smacked his arms.

"What're you doing?" I asked him.

He leaned forwards. "You owe me a hug, remember?" I could hear the smile in his voice.

I rolled my eyes, but turned around and hugged him back.

Then I lightly pulled away and smiled at him. And I turned around and kept walking.

I had made it all the way to where the forest met the walls and back. I felt energized, rejuvenated. I walked back to the main area with a slight spring in my step.

I nodded at a couple passing Gladers. Then I saw Gabe talking to Will, and I ran over to them.

As I got closer, I heard their conversation.

"But we don't know!" Gabe was trying to convince Will that the Griever den could be an exit.

"Exactly! We don't know what's down there!" Will looked very annoyed.

I could see Gabe shaking his head in frustration.

"But it could be an exit!"

Will rolled his eyes. "Or it could be filled with Grievers!" He exclaimed.

I sighed and walked up to them.

"I'll do it." I said. They turned and looked at me.

"What?" Gabe asked.

I shrugged. "Somebody has to go down there. Why not me?" I stared at him expectantly.

Gabe grabbed my arms. "But you could die!" He said. I rolled my eyes.

"So could whoever else you were planning on sending down there." I gestured towards the other Gladers.

"Actually, I was planning on being the one who went down." Gabe snapped.

I glared at him. "Like hell you are. At least I have a chance of surviving." I crossed my arms.

Will opened his mouth, but Gabe shushed him.

"I'll get a party together, then we'll leave for the Griever den tomorrow. We need to get out of here." He said it in a final way, like nothing could change his mind.

I smiled at him. "Fine, but I'm going with you."

Will rolled his eyes. "That's great. I'll just let two of my strongest Gladers kill themselves. Absolutely fine. No problem." He growled, then stalked off towards the kitchens.

I shrugged at Gabe. "He'll get over it eventually."

That's when a group of Runners emerged from the Maze.

They were part of the search party that was sent to find Addy. I could see several of them were injured, and one was even being supported by another.

I ran over to them.

'"What the shuck happened?" I shouted at them when I was in hearing range.

The girl supporting the limping guy looked up.

"We found Addy." She called.

I stopped in my tracks.

"So where is he?" I asked.

The girl shook her head, and gestured towards the group.

I counted them, and came up with an uneven number. Five Gladers had come out of the Maze, but there should have been six, or better yet, seven.

The girl sighed. "He attacked us. It seemed like he was fighting with the Grievers. The weird part is, they weren't attacking him, either." She looked at the boy she was supporting, and I saw a tear fall down her cheek.

"Lay him down, I'll get the Med-jacks." I called to her as I turned around and sprinted off towards Homestead.

I was intercepted by Beth, who was on her way to check out the comotion. She saw me running towards her and stopped.

"Cleo, what's going on?" She asked.

I stopped and bent over to catch my breath.

"The other Runners are back, but they need your help." I gasped.

Beth nodded, and she put her fingers to her mouth and let out a high pitched whistle. Then she hurried off in the direction of the doors.

A couple other Med-jacks ran by me, carrying their herbs and ointments.

That night, when the Grievers attacked, we were prepared. All the Gladers huddled in the Homestead buildings, clutching knives and spears.

The Grievers were rolling around outside, roaring, their mechanical organs whirring and clicking.

Some of us tried to get some sleep on some mats we had found, but most were too scared to do anything but huddle against the wall trying not to pass out from fear and lack of sleep.

I was sitting on a mat in-between a sleeping Joan and a nervous, twitching Charlie.

Every time there was even the slightest sound, she jumped.

It would have been funny, if I wasn't as scared as her.

We heard a loud crash upstairs, and a high-pitched scream. People from the floor above us came rushing down the stairs. I stood up as the new arrivals squished themselves into the already cramped room.

"What happened?" I asked one girl.

She looked up at me. "A Griever got in and grabbed Zoe." She said, her eyes full of fear and pain.

I glared at her. "There's a shucking Griever upstairs, and you don't think that's important?" I snapped.

The girl flinched. "They only take one person from each Homestead." She said quietly.

I nodded sarcastically. "Yes, but they still kill more if they can." I headed over to the stairs.

Charlie looked up. "What the bloody shuck are you doin', Cleo?" She yelled.

I glanced back at her, then started climbing the stairs.

The top floor was a wreck. There was a big gash in the wall, where a window had been. I looked around and saw a dark lump in the corner. I approached it slowly, and as I got nearer, my stomach twisted.

It was the body of Beth.

I looked away, towards the gash. I walked over and jumped onto the broken wall.

Then I slowly lowered myself onto the roof to look at the Glade in the early morning's gray light.

Wait…. I looked at the sky. It was just endless gray expanse. It didn't look like clouds, there was no texture. It seemed like the normally cheery and bright blue sky had been turned to stone. A noise made me look down.

A group of Grievers were carrying a writhing girl towards the door. They were following a group carrying a boy.

My insides burned with anger. I leaped off the roof and sprinted after the Grievers. I must have been earning a reputation, as the Grievers were shying away from me as I got closer.

I yelled, and jumped onto the nearest one. It screamed and buckled, trying to dislodge me. I leaped from Griever to Griever until I got to the one carrying the girl.

I grabbed her arm and tried to heave her upwards. The Griever carrying her screeched. That's when I realized it had sucked her partly into it's blubbery skin. I pulled again, and this time they both screamed.

The Griever had stabbed a claw into her side, keeping her in its skin as it carried her away. If I pulled to hard, or hard enough to get her off, the Griever would rip out her heart.

I had to jump and roll off, letting the Grievers take the girl back into the Maze.

I shouted and started to pursue them, but they were moving fast. Partway into the Maze, the kids they had abducted had stopped screaming. The Grievers moved ahead and disappeared into the Cliff.

I collapsed onto my knees, and started sobbing. After awhile, I got up and trudged back to the Glade. I was met by my friends who were relieved to see me alive. They hugged me and told me they thought I would be dead.

But I didn't hear them. Not really.

Those Gladers that had been taken, I could have saved them. At least that's what I told myself. But I felt responsible.

I was wandering around the Glade aimlessly, when I was intercepted by Charlie. She walked up to me and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me.

"What were you thinking?" She yelled at me.

I shrugged and turned away, but she turned me back to face her.

"I wake up, and they tell me one of my friends had gone after the bloody Grievers! What am I supposed to do, huh? YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" She screamed at me. I just shook my head, then looked up at her with sad eyes.

"I couldn't save them." I whispered. Charlie rolled her eyes.

"For buggin's sake, Cleo! You could have died!" She said fiercely.

I shrugged again. "But they did die." I said sadly, then I walked away from her.

We were standing at the entrance of the Maze. I turned around to look at the twelve Gladers behind me.

"Our mission is simple, people! Get to the Griever den, send Gabe down, hope he doesn't die, and find a way out!" I shouted.

The crowd cheered, and then I led the way into the Maze.

I was in the front, with Gabe behind me. Joan was in the back with a couple more Mappers to record anything we find.

We reached the Cliff by noon, later than usual because some of our group are slow and not Runners. I gestured forwards the Builders who were holding a long rope made from the ivy off the walls. The end was tied to Gabe's waist. He nodded at them, then walked over to stand on the edge.

He crouched down, and grabbed the edge of the Cliff. Then he hoisted himself down until he was just hanging from the edge. He started climbing down, holding a flashlight in one hand.

The rope was to pull him back out if a Griever appeared. He was slowly disappearing despite the light that accompanied him.

Then he completely disappeared.

My brain went into overdrive and I panicked. I kneeled down beside the edge and yelled.

"GABE! GABE WHERE DID YOU GO?" I screamed at the hole.

I saw a hand appear and he came back into view.

"Calm down, I'm still here." He said.

"What. But you disappeared." I was shocked.

He shrugged. "Maybe, but I think I found the bottom." He went back down into complete darkness.

I heard a soft thump, and the rope was tugged twice, meaning he had reached the bottom, or at least landed on something. Hopefully not a Griever.

I grabbed a light and hoisted myself over the cliff. I reached out and wrapped my hand around the rope as I slowly lowered myself into the abyss. I was only a couple feet down when I looked up and couldn't see anything above me. Something brushed my leg, and I flinched.

I looked down to see Gabe standing on a stone floor holding out his hand.

"C'mon, this way." He said, grabbing my hand and tugging me towards a door.

I leaned back towards the hole.

"It's all clear, guys! You can come down!" I yelled back up.

As the other Gladers in our expedition party came down, we opened the door, and entered a lab.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

Joan gasped. "It's the Creator's lab, I bet"

She walked over to study a couple monitors and screens. I looked over and saw the Glade from various views on the screens.

"They were watching us." She said quietly, brushing the screens with her hand.

I looked over and saw these weird oval shaped cocoons. I walked over and looked at the tag. It said Section 3, subject F in bold letters on the side. I realized the other half was transparent, so I walked around to see what was inside. It was a Griever.

I turned around and bolted for the others.

"Out out out out." I was pushing them towards the door.

They looked at me confused. I just kept pushing them towards the rope that led to the top of the cliff. Once everyone was out of the lab, I heard a soft click. I turned around to see the top of one of the pods opening.

I shrieked and shoved the door closed. I looked around, and almost everyone was back in the Maze. Only me, Gabe, and Joan were left.

"Go-go-go!" I yelled, hoisting Joan up towards the cliff. I turned around when I heard a large crash. Gabe turned around too.

"What was that?" He asked quietly.

I looked at him. "Grievers." I said simply.

With that, he pushed me back up towards the Maze. I grabbed a small ledge and pulled myself above the black plane. I reached out, and several people grabbed my hand. When my feet were on the ground, the Builders pulled Gabe back up.

We heard a screech from the darkness, and I started shoving people down the corridor.

"Go, head for the Glade. Run!" I commanded. The head Runners nodded at me, and took off. Everybody else followed. I ran at the back, in case the Grievers followed.

When we reached the Glade, we were met by all the people left behind. Charlie ran up and gave me and Joan a big hug, whether we wanted it or not.

Will walked up to Gabe.

"So what'd you shanks find?" He asked.

Gabe looked up."The way out of the Maze." He said.

Will stared at him.

"You're joking." He said, shocked.

Gabe shook his head, and Joan walked up.

"He's telling the truth. We found the Creator's lab. It's the way out." She nodded.

Will looked back and forth between them, then his eyes landed on me.

"Cleo, what'd you find?" He asked, jogging up to me.

Gabe and Joan stuttered in disbelief. Will ignored them.

I looked up at him, my face still horrified.

"We did find the exit, but it's got Griever guard dogs." I said hollowly.

Will's face fell, and he looked at me gravely.

"Did we lose anyone?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, but we will." I said sadly.

I left Will to talk about preparations for tomorrow. I walked towards Bonewoods.

The forest was quiet, because the creators hadn't put any wild animals in them. The leaves were casting ashy shadows on the moss. I looked up, and the sky was still gray.

I walked for a while, until I reached the graveyard. I had come to say my final goodbyes to Victoria, or what was left of her.

I kneeled down and gently brushed the cross marking her grave. I placed the single daisy I had picked on top of the small mound of dirt.

Only a single teardrop fell from my eye, splashing on a daisy petal. I stood up to leave, when I heard a quiet rustle. I looked up, and saw a shadow racing away through the trees. I sprinted after it.

It wasn't clear to me what it was, but as I reached the edge of the woods, I caught it.

It looked like a small mechanical lizard-bug, it's eyeballs were little cameras. I assumed the creators were watching, but could also hear me as well.

"Creators," I said to the machine, "I know you can hear me. We are not lab rats, animals meant to be trapped and studied. We are getting out, and coming to kill you." I glared at the cameras with as much force as I could. "You are truly wicked." I said calmly.

Then I smashed it against a tree.

Later, I found Gabe helping pack food and other necessities, because we didn't know where we were, or what we were going to come out in.

I helped him fill pouches with water and vegetables from the gardens. We split the preserved meat, bread, and plants into different bags, in case that was important.

The other Runners and Mappers were planning out a route for us to take, the Builders and Bricknicks were making weapons, the Slicers and Track-hoes were gathering food and water, and the rest of us were packing.

I stood up and decided to take a break, so I headed over to the routing group. I leaned in next to Joan.

"What've you got?" I asked.

Joan looked up at me. "We were going to take this shortcut that just opened up. We used to have to go around, but now we don't have to." She answered, motioning to the map they were drawing out.

I pointed at the lab.

"But we need a code to get through the door to the outside." I pointed out.

Joan's face changed. "Oh, that's not good. Do you have any idea what that might be?" She asked me.

I shrugged. Then it seemed an idea hit her.

She motioned towards the maps.

"Can we layer every map we have for each section together?" She asked.

I looked at her, confused.

She sighed. "We choose the one map we think is the best representation for that section on that day and layer it. Do it for the whole cycle." She explained.

I nodded, and called Bits over to help. As she turned back towards the other workers, Charlie ran up to me. I turned to face her.

"So what'd you guys decide?" I asked.

Will had called a meeting with all the Keepers. He said I didn't need to go, so I decided to help prepare.

Charlie caught her breath, then looked up at me.

"It's all ready. We leave tomorrow if it's all good. He'd rather us leave tonight and not risk two more Gladers, but he knows we're not ready." She said awkwardly, casting me a sideways glance when she mentioned the Gladers getting taken by the Grievers.

My face went grim, but I nodded.

Charlie looked behind me.

"So, uh, what're you doing?" She asked.

Joan spoke up.

"We need a code to get out, so that's what we're doing." She called.

Charlie raised her eyebrows.

"Are you guys gonna have enough time, though?" She asked.

Joan shrugged, then went back to work. Charlie turned towards me.

"Well, I'm bloody convinced. You should probably ask Will to give you at least another day to crack that code." She said sarcastically.

I nodded. "Yeah I probably should, but not right now."

I turned towards the Maze door.

"Right now, I'm gonna scout for any signs of Grievers." I said, hefting my pack onto my shoulder.

Then I started jogging towards the entrance.

The Maze was eerily quiet, no walls moving, no Grievers out. I ran between the walls, listening for anything. I turned a corner and tripped on something.

I stumbled, but I caught my balance before I fell. I looked down to see what I tripped on.

It was a small box sitting on the Maze floor. I picked it up and opened it. Inside was a note.

The note said: You are not getting out. You never will.

I stared at the note. I flipped it over to check the back, but it was blank.

I heard a screeching sound, and my head shot up. There was movement at the end of the corridor. I jumped up, ready to run, when I realized it was the walls. The walls were moving.

They were closing in on me from either side. I realized if I didn't get out, I'd be squished.

I turned around and bolted for the exit. My feet pounded the ground, and I had flashbacks to the time David chased me after he'd been stung, and when I had been running from the Griever.

I turned the corner and raced towards the distant green of the Glade.

As I reached the doors, I doubled over to catch my breath. People were running over to me.

Will jogged over to me.

"Cleo, what happened?" He asked.

I looked up, then handed him the note.

He took it and scanned it over with his eyes. His face went grim and he passed it to the Glader next to him. He looked back at me as I straightened up.

"Who gave this to you?" He asked.

I shook my head.

"Nobody. I found it on the Maze floor." I said unsteadily, still catching my breath.

Will's face went blank. He took back the note and wandered off.

I looked at the other Gladers, then shrugged.

I had just finished changing into fresher clothes when Bits walked in. I heard the door open and turned around to see her standing in the doorway.

"What do you want?" I asked.

She folded her arms.

"Tell me about Victoria." She said calmly.

I looked at her slowly.

"How the shuck do you even know about her?" I asked.

"They told me after you were taken." She responded.

I huffed angrily. "They shouldn't have."

Bits shrugged. "Maybe, but I still want to know."

I turned around and ignored her, but she didn't leave. I sighed.

"Fine. What about her?" I asked without turning around.

I heard Bits pull up a chair.

"I want to know what she was like." Bits demanded.

I turned around and leaned against the table.

"Well, she was funny, and blunt in more ways than one. She also wouldn't let herself be pushed around by anyone." I was staring at the ceiling, trying to re-count my memories about her.

Bits shifted in her seat.

"How long were you friends?' She asked.

"We were close since the day I got here." I said.

She hesitated, then nodded.

"Alright, I understand now. I wish I could have met her."

She got up, then quickly walked out the door.

Will had a plan to spread out the Gladers more, hoping to lose less that night. He instructed six Gladers to hide in the box, since it had not gone down yet, and would not if there was a person in it.

A group were to hide in the Slammer, and most of the Mappers hid underneath the Maproom in a secret basement-like room no one else knew about.

The rest of us hid where we would normally be, at Homestead. I was crouching under a table with Charlie next to me, gripping a knife I had swiped from the kitchen.

The Grievers had come later tonight than they normally did. I could hear them snuffling and squeaking outside the buildings, their mechanic organs clicking and beeping.

A shadow momentarily blocked some light as a Griever crawled past a crack in the wall.

Then it seemed to give up and move away, the sounds of it's wheels getting fainter. We cautiously stood up and looked around.

I heard a loud creaking sound from above, and my head shot up.

A Griever claw burst through the roof and grabbed a girl. She screamed and tried to run, but it was too late. The Griever yanked her up, and she was gone.

I knew there was nothing I could do, so I collapsed in a heap of despair. There were other Gladers sobbing in the background, but they were all partially relieved, knowing the Griever wouldn't come back for a second one.

I leaned my back against the leg of the table, wishing we could have all gotten the chance for freedom.

The next day, we gathered around the doors. The walls seemed taller and more forbidding than ever. Joan was explaining her plan.

"So we'll attack the Grievers head on if any wake up, but hopefully they won't." She stood up and turned to look at me.

"Cleo, you've organized all the food and supplies, right?" She asked.

I nodded, raising an eyebrow. "Feeling bossy today, eh Joan?"

She rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

After all the Griever attacks, we were down to about thirty or so Gladers. I did a head count, and there were 32 able-bodied Gladers.

After we had distributed the food and water, we turned around to take one last look at the Glade.

Then we headed into the Maze.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

It must have been strange for the creators, seeing all their test subjects running through the Maze in one big herd.

I was in charge of being at the head of the group. We reached the corner that turned into the corridor that led to the Cliff.

I held up my hand, and the group slowed to a halt. I peeked around the corner, and crept back.

"What is it?" Asked Charlie. I looked over at her.

"There's a Griever. Hope you're ready to fight." I said to the rest of them.

They nodded soberly, pulling out weapons and clenching their fists.

Will pounded the bottom of his stick on the maze floor.

"We escape today, or we go down fighting." He shouted.

The Gladers cheered, and we ran around the corner, rushing straight at the Griever.

It whirled around at our yells, and came charging at us.

We hefted our weapons, aiming at the Griever. I chucked a knife at it, impaling it's blubbery skin.

As the Gladers clashed with the Griever, Will ran by me, shouting.

"Cleo, take Charlie and Bits, and see if you can make it to the lab."

I nodded at Bits, grabbed Charlie's arm, and sprinted for it.

We didn't bother with a rope this time, we just jumped down into the dark hole. We landed on our feet, and rushed into the lab.

As Bits led Charlie over to the computers, I looked around. It seemed that only one Griever was out at the moment.

"Hey Cleo! Come here!" Bits shouted across the room. I looked over.

She was bent over a computer screen, her short blond hair tucked behind her ears.

I hurried over as she looked up.

"I need the note," She said.

I took out the crumpled piece of paper from my pocket. I handed it to her, and took a look at the screen. It needed an 8-digit password, but all the keys were letters.

Bits took out her own paper, which had the sequence for the sections. It was 71526483. There were 8 words in the message. She put in the first letter of each word in the pattern of the sequence.

We heard shouts and grunts from above. Suddenly there was a loud thunk sound. We whirled around, and saw a Griever had dropped into the lab.

I grabbed a knife from my pack and charged at it, slashing the blade through the air. It shrieked and jerked back.

"How's that going, guys?" I called over my shoulder.

"We need your help, Cleo!" Bits shouted back.

Course they do, I sighed.

I smacked the Griever over the head one more time, then ran over to the control panel. Bits handed me the paper slips, and motioned towards the screen.

I was almost done when people started coming down the hole. Will, Gabe, and about thirteen other kids followed.

Charlie glanced around.

"Where's Joan?" She asked them.

Will was about to open his mouth to respond, when she dropped down the tunnel. She landed in a crouching motion, her shirt torn on the shoulder, showing a bleeding gash.

Bits ran over to her, helping her stand up. I was typing in the last letter, and a Griever came crashing through the door.

It landed, roared, then leaped at Bits. Charlie screamed, her voice echoing off the walls. I pressed the last key, and then the Griever stuttered to a halt, then collapsed in a gooey mass on the ground.

Joan wrapped her arms around a petrified Bits. Will exhaled a breath of relief. Then we heard a creaking sound behind us. I whirled around, and the door was opening.

I took a step towards it and saw there was a chute with a slide leading down. I turned to look back at the ragged and torn group.

Then I jumped down, whooshing down the metal slide. It was sticky and smelled weird, reminding me of the time I got close to the Griever pods.

The rest followed my lead, sliding down one at a time.

When I got to the bottom, I saw we were in a large empty room, with a huge glass pane for a wall on one side. And there were people looking at us from behind that wall.

Joan gasped.

"It's the Creators." She said quietly.

Gabe stared at her.

"The slintheads who put us in that nightmare?" He asked angrily.

Charlie nodded.

Just then a door in the side of the wall that had been hidden opened. Two people walked in, a tall, menacing lady in a lab coat, and a skinny, lanky boy in a hooded sweatshirt. The hood was covering his face, but there was something familiar about the way he moved.

The lady spoke.

"Congratulations, you have successfully completed the Maze Trials. And an astounding number of you survived." She said calmly.

I looked back at the group of about fifteen Gladers.

Joan stepped forwards.

"What the shuck you talkin' about, lady? This is one third of who we started with." She glared angrily at the woman.

The woman looked at her with a cold hard stare. Then she nodded, apparently to nothing. Then the boy next to her reached up and pulled down his hood.

There was a collective gasp from the Gladers.

It was Addy.

He reached for something at his side, and I saw a knife sheathed at his belt.

He drew his weapon, pointing it at Joan. She stumbled back.

"Wha-?" She gasped.

Addy wasted no time. I saw what was going to happen, I shrieked and grabbed for her. But someone was faster.

A girl with red hair she always held up with a bandana, her name was Marie. She leaped forward, body slamming Joan out of the way, just as Addy threw his knife. I saw it fly through the air, handle over blade, and impaled itself deep into the girl's chest.

Joan screamed and caught her as she fell.

"No, no, no, no." She cried, cuddling the girls head in her lap.

She stroked the girl's head.

"You said we'd have a fresh start in the new world." She whispered brokenly.

The girl smiled weakly.

"It was never meant to happen, Joan." She muttered quietly.

Then she went still.

Joan screamed, a deep, heart-shattering cry.

I understood what happened immediately. I knew Joan had been hiding something, and I guessed this was it.

My eyes burned with rage, I couldn't see clearly.

I let out a loud shout, not making any words. I leaped straight at Addy, my teeth clenched as hard as my fists.

I hit him as hard as I could, slashing upwards, snapping his head back. He stumbled, and I slammed him to the ground.

Punch after punch, I hit him with all the rage I had felt about the Creators since I had arrived in the Maze.

His face was a mess of blood and flesh when Will and Gabe pulled me off him.

When I had been in my little rage spell, a group of men in black had come in a different way and shot all the people in lab coats.

As they pulled me away from Addy, I saw a word on the chest of one of the Creators. It said WICKED in all capitals.

The men gathered us all and herded us onto a helicopter waiting outside.

Charlie and Bits were comforting Joan. I felt numb with shock, I just couldn't believe we were finally out.

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders, and I turned to see Gabe smiling down at me.

"We did it, Cleo. We're finally out." He said weakly, and I knew the price of our escape might have been too much.

I nodded, and we stepped onto the vehicle.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

Lights everywhere, flashing from the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. A blue mist edged my dream, surrounding the bright white walls. Screams and cries of people in the background. But I only saw one face. A boy who looked around my age. He had dark hair and eyes. He was hugging me, his words of comfort having no effect. Then he looked me directly in the eyes, a half-smirk edging the corners of his mouth. A look that itched the edge of a memory the Creators had taken from me. He smiled, and I heard one word. A word I'll never forget. He said something in my ear. Remember.

Someone was shaking me. I heard a loud rumbling noise. Then my eyes snapped open. Charlie was standing above me, trying to wake me up.

"Bloody get up, Cleo! We have to go!" She shouted.

I tumbled off the cot I had slept on in the helicopter.

We were outside a huge warehouse. There were men in armor shouting and pointing guns at something over a big dune behind us. I didn't stop to look.

We ran to the building, Bits helping Joan limp along.

Once we were inside, huge doors slammed shut, locks twisting and clicking.

More mysterious men herded us into a room, which looked like it was used for storage.

Then they closed the door and locked it.

Will looked around.

"What the shuck?" He asked to no one in particular.

We turned around, and found a table laden with platters of food waiting for us.

We stood in silence, staring at it.

Then Bits rushed forwards, saying "Dibs on the bagels."

Bits has this thing for bagels. It's really weird.

Well, after that we all ran for the food. It was mostly just eating. There was mainly no talking. And it also ended in a food fight. Charlie accidentally threw some rice at Will, and it sort of went from there.

After we had finished eating, we were sitting around on some flour sacks. There was a click, and the door opened. We stood up, and a man walked in. He was wearing all white, and he had greasy black hair that was gray on the edges. He nodded to the Gladers.

"Hope you're all well rested. I'm sorry about the conditions, we were caught in a, how should I put this, in a swarm, let's say." He motioned for them to follow.

The group looked at each other wearily. Will nodded slowly, and we followed the man into the hallway.

The man kept talking.

"My name is Mr. Janson, and I run this place. It's a sanctuary from the outside world and WICKED." He led us to a door.

"But let's get you kids cleaned up first." He smiled.

After we had showered, he left us in a big room full of doctors and nurses. They said they were going to test our physical conditions and get us what we lacked.

A woman in a white lab coat and safety goggles led me to a big chair that looked like it could be leaned all the way back. She motioned for me to sit down. While I sat, she started taking bottles and mixing liquids together. Then she poured them into a little glass cylinder.

She walked over to another table and attached something to the end of the cylinder. She turned around and I saw it was a long needle.

I stared at the needle suspiciously.

"What's that?" I asked.

The woman looked up.

"This? It's a combination of protein, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and other important nutrients you were lacking out there." She said matter-of-factly.

She wiped my shoulder with a cloth smelling of some herbal medicine.

I took in a deep breath as she held up the needle to my arm.

Elsewhere, similar treatments were happening. Joan's busted leg was being tested, and Charlie was running on a treadmill with patches stuck to her arms.

After the doctor had bandaged me, she led me over to the treadmill next to her.

Charlie nodded at me. The doctor stuck patches on my arms as well, and I got on and started running. Seems like that's all anybody wants me to do.

After all the tests were done, another man dressed in black led us to a door with two round windows at the top, but I couldn't see in.

Will walked forwards and opened the door. We followed him inside. It was a cafeteria.

There were about eight tables full of kids. One group I noticed looked fairly small. There were about seven guys, and they had all turned to look as we walked in.

We took a seat at a mostly empty table. Joan tapped me on the shoulder.

"Where'd the rest of our group go?" She asked.

I looked at her.

"They're dead." I said.

I realized what I said, and I was about to apologize, but Joan stopped me.

"Don't even, I remember. But I mean since we got here?" She looked worried.

I glanced around, and realized that most of our group had disappeared.

"Where do you think they went, then?" I asked her.

She shrugged.

"There are only boys in here, so I'm guessing they took them to where the girls are." She said.

I shrugged.

A boy across the table looked over.

"Hey there, slimsticks. I guess since you're new, you should know. You're not the only Maze. We're all from Mazes." He said in a gruff, scratchy voice. He pointed to a kid in a striped hoodie, who Bits had gone to sit next to.

"That guy, he's been here the longest. About a week and a half." The boy told us.

I looked back at our group to see how they were taking it. Will looked shocked, but like he was trying to hide it, Alex, Charlie's friend, was staring at the wall, completely in his own world. Joan and Charlie were exchanging shocked looks, while Gabe looked like nothing could surprise him after the Maze.

I saw two boys approaching our table. They were both from the group I had noticed earlier. One was a buff Asian kid with gelled dark hair, and the other was a skinny lanky kid with brown eyes. The brown-eyed kid was laughing, but trying not to make it too obvious.

I looked back at the table they came from, and saw a blond-haired kid holding his head in his hands, a stout African-american kid laughing with a tan kid with monstrous acne.

The Asian boy stridded up to our table, looking confident.

"So what was a pretty girl like you doin' in the Glade?" He asked charmingly.

Joan snorted. I felt my cheeks flush.

Gabe cooly slid an arm around my shoulders.

"Sorry shuck-face, but she's taken." He said.

The skinny kid fell on the ground laughing. I looked over and saw the blond kid face-palm, then stand up. As he was walking over, I noticed he had a limp, just like Joan.

"Minho, you bloody idiot, I told you not to go around flirting with random girls!" The kid had the same accent as Charlie.

He turned and nodded at us.

"Sorry 'bout that. This shuck face's name is Minho, and I'm Newt. And that one's Thomas." He pointed to the kid who was laughing on the ground.

"Get off the bloody floor, Tommy." He kneeled down and helped the laughing kid up.

Joan glared at the boy called Minho.

"You're a lucky slinthead she didn't break your shucking nose." She said.

I stared at him cooly.

"I still might." I said threateningly.

Joan nodded at Newt's leg.

"You've got a busted leg?" She asked.

Newt looked at her sharply.

"You got a buggin' problem with that?" He asked.

Joan stood up and walked around.

"If I did, I'd be a hypocrite." She said mildly.

Newt nodded.

"Guess WICKED hurt us all." He said lightly.

Thomas looked down.

"That's an understatement." he grimaced. "We're lucky we're not all dead." He mumbled at the floor.

Newt's expresion changed.

"Aw, sorry Tommy. We all miss the little shank." He said soothingly.

At that point I realized he must have lost someone close to him. Charlie stared at them.

"What happened?" She asked.

Alex slapped her arm. She yelped and looked at him indignantly.

Thomas shook his head.

"It's alright. It was this boy named Chuck. He was my first friend in the Glade." He said bitterly.

Newt leaned back, looking a little offended.

"So I'm what, the bloody guy who told you to run into the Maze at night?" He asked.

Minho snorted. Thomas shot a sideways glare at him.

"Anyways, Gally threw a knife at me, but Chuck jumped in front of me and saved my life." After he finished, he was met by silence from my group.

Will looked around, then leaned forwards.

"That's strange. The same thing happened to us." He said quietly.

Newt looked up.

"Well that can't be a coincidence, now can it?" He muttered, mostly to himself.

I heard a faint hissing sound, and turned to see a door slowly opening. Janson, followed by two men in black who were carrying big heavy guns, strolled in.

He was holding a clipboard. When he got to the center of the room, he stopped.

"If I call your name, please stand behind me with my friends here." He said calmly.

I eyed the men. If anything, they looked farther from friendly than even Addy had.

He started reading names off the list. He called about ten kids in total. No one from my group or it seemed from Newt's group were called.

When he was done, they left through the door they had entered in, the kids trailing behind them.

Gabe looked at Newt.

"Where the shuck are they taking them?" He asked.

Newt shrugged.

Joan pointed at the kid sitting with Bits.

"He from your group?" She asked.

Thomas shook his head.

Will turned back to look at him.

"So how many Mazes are there, exactly?" he asked.

Thomas shrugged again.

"Probably less than ten." He said.

Minho slapped his shoulder.

"Nah, there's like 40." He smiled arrogantly.

I met his eyes cooly.

"There's only 26 letters in the alphabet, shuck-face." I said calmly.

Minho sniffed defensively, and Newt clapped his arm gently.

"Well what do you bloody know, Minho. She's out-sassed you." He said playfully.

Minho looked at me and smirked.

"Doesn't make me like her any less." He said quietly.

All thoughts left my head. I stood up and punched him so hard, he stumbled backwards.

Blood spurted out of his nose, and he crumpled to the ground.

I cracked my knuckles, then rolled my shoulders.

"Next time, think before you annoy someone who's killed more Grievers than there are people in this room." I said coldly.

Newt crouched down next to Minho, who was writhing on the ground.

"Bloody hell, Minho. It's bad, but it's not that bad."

Thomas was laughing again. Joan looked at him.

"Do you normally laugh this much, or just when this slinthead embarasses himself?" She asked.

He was laughing so hard, he couldn't answer. She looked at me, and shrugged.

Gabe, who had been about to do the same thing I had, nodded in satisfaction.

"You really need to know when to quit, mate." He said angrily.

I looked over at the other tables, and noticed people weren't staring.

That's odd, I thought.

Newt was pressing napkins on Minho's nose, trying his hardest to stop the bleeding. Thomas had gone back to his table to explain what had happened.

I sat back down and yawned.

"Better hope we can sleep soon." I said.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

The guards had led us to a room with plenty of bunkbeds for all of us. They obviously didn't care to separate the girls and boys. Me and Charlie were headed towards the same bunk, but I leaped on top and smiled down at her.

"Too slow."

She frowned, but I knew she was just playing.

The others had found places to sleep as well.

Soon we were all nice and cozy, so I fell asleep in no time.

We were woken up by an alarm blaring in the middle of the night. We heard people rushing by our room. I slid off the bed and landed on my feet. We hurried over to the door, but it was locked.

I looked around to see if there was another way out.

I spotted a vent under one of the beds.

I grabbed Will's sleeve.

"We can go through there and see what we find." I said, pointing at the grate.

Will glanced at it, then nodded.

"You'll go with Bits, because she's small." He tapped her on the shoulder. She agreed after he explained what we were planning.

I went over to the vent and gave a sharp tug. It didn't come off, but I did feel it loosen a bit. A couple more pulls and it clattered to the ground.

I let Bits go in first. Before I followed, I turned to face the rest of them.

"Cover for us until we get back." I said solemnly.

They nodded, then I crawled inside.

We were shuffling around inside the vents until we reached a spot of light. We looked down, and I heard Bits stifle a gasp.

The group we had met earlier, Newt and them, were standing against a door, cornered by a group of people slowly advancing on them. Thomas had a gun pointed at the leader. I looked closer at who he was aiming at, then almost fell over. It was Janson.

I leaned closer to hear better.

Janson and the guards were slowly approaching them, guns raised.

"You think the maze was tough. You kids wouldn't last one day in the Scorch. It's for your own well being." He said.

Thomas fumbled with the trigger on his own weapon.

"Yeah let me guess. WICKED is good?" He said, he voice dripping with sarcasm.

Janson cocked his head.

"You're not getting through those doors." He said calmly.

Suddenly there was a swishing sound, and the door slid opened. They all turned to stare. On the other side stood that kid in the striped hoodie, Aris, and the kid with horrendous acne, I think his name was Winston.

Aris smiled.

"Hey guys." He breathed. I heard a little noise from Bits, and looked over to see her leaning so far forward, I was scared they were going to see her.

Thomas whirled around and started firing his gun. Blazing bolts of what looked like silver electricity shot out, rocketing everywhere. The others scrambled through the door. It started sliding down, closing.

Thomas' gun ran out of ammo, then he threw it at the guards. His friends were yelling at him to run, and then I noticed there was a girl with them.

Thomas slid under the door right before it closed. Janson ran up to and shouted at him, but Thomas glared at him, and flipped him off through the window. Then he and his friends ran.

As soon as we got back to our room, we were bombarded with questions. Will told everyone to shush, so we could talk.

"They escaped." Bits huffed, catching her breath.

They looked at her, confused.

"Escaped from what?" Asked Joan.

Bits looked up.

"From WICKED." She said.

They stared at her. Gabe stepped forwards.

"What are you saying?" He asked nervously.

I turned around.

"We never escaped. It's still WICKED. It's always been WICKED." I growled.

The others were shocked.

Charlie was the first to get her voice back.

"So what the bloody hell are we supposed to do about it?" She asked.

I glanced at Bits.

"Just play along until we find the chance to escape as well." I responded.

The others nodded reluctantly.

So we stayed in our beds until the door clicked open.

Janson strided in, his face flushed but composed. We hopped off the bunks. Will approached him.

"What was that alarm about?" He asked the man.

Janson looked around, and I caught a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"There was a problem, but it's being dealt with right now." He responded, straightening his jacket.

He motioned for us to follow him, and he led us back to the cafeteria.

As we hesitantly sat down, he took out a clipboard, but this one was different than earlier.

"You should all know WICKED took you because you are immune to the Flare. But some of you are not. I have here a list of who is and isn't, and will now read the list of all susceptive to the disease." He said.

He cleared his throat then began.

"Newt, Brigitts, Abraham, Mark…."

I collapsed on the ground, holding my head. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. Gabe wasn't immune.

I felt an arm around my shoulders, and looked up to see him crouching next to me.

"It's gonna be okay, Cleo." He said gently.

I glared at him.

"Alright, yeah it's totally fine that your gonna go insane and shucking lose your mind." I said.

He started to protest, but I ignored him.

I stood up and faced Janson.

"Why were they in the Maze if they weren't immune?" I asked as calmly as I could.

Janson started at me with level eyes.

"To compare the kill zones of immunes to non-immunes." He said steadily.

I balled my fists at my sides.

"And how would you know that, huh?" I asked bitterly.

A brief look of shock crossed his face, but it was so quick I doubted I even saw it in the first place.

His face hardened, then he whirled around and walked out without a word.

Charlie clapped me on the shoulder.

"Nice going, ya bloody shank. Now he doesn't trust us." She said sarcastically.

I shrugged.

"It's not like we're staying much longer. I want to get out as soon as possible." I whispered, leaning in so the other groups wouldn't hear me.

I glanced at the others. Will was nodding, Gabe was cracking his knuckles, Joan and Charlie were giving me thumbs-up, while Bits was crossing her arms.

"But we need to find the rest of our group." She said.

Alex nodded.

"Yeah, most of our Med-jacks were in the other half, and I have a feeling we would need them." He agreed.

I glanced at Will.

"So it's decided then. We'll find the others, then escape." He said quietly.

We all nodded, then went to look for them.

Apparently they were in a cafeteria similar to ours. We were met by hugs and smiles.

We had to hurriedly explain what was going on and what we were planning. They agreed, but most were wide-eyed with fear.

Our plan involved a distraction, and Alex, along with a Glader named Mark, volunteered. Charlie looked extremely worried, and tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn't listen.

They started off heading towards the showers, so they had an alibi.

The rest of us headed towards our rooms. As soon as the door closed, it locked. It seemed all the doors automatically did that, and that alone should have made us suspicious.

But that didn't matter because we were sneaking through the vents. The only reason we needed a distraction was in case we weren't quiet enough.

We tied up the door with our bed sheets and stacked some chairs and a mattress against it, then, one by one, we slipped through the small tunnel.

We crawled on our forearms and knees, scrambling as quietly as we could through the vents.

The guards would surely be checking them now, since that seemed to be how the others escaped.

So we avoided all points of light. The guards seemed to not come into the tunnels themselves, but pace beneath all the vent grates.

We heard shouting in the distance, and the alarm went off again. That was our signal that the distraction was underway.

We hurried along the tunnels, not stopping to talk or take a break.

Finally, we reached what must be the vent that's closest to the outside. We could clearly hear guards standing right below us, clicking their guns into action and the soft whoosh sound of them swinging around.

I stopped, and held a finger to my lips, signaling the group to be quiet. Then we heard a shout, and the clomping of feet as Alex and Mark whisked past them. The guards raced after them, yelling.

I nodded, and dropped down. There were two guns pointed at me.

The others noticed before they came down, and Will, who was after me, held everyone else back.

The two WICKED guards hefted their guns and started circling me.

"Nice try. But we're not falling for such a dopey plan." One said through his hooded mask.

I cocked my head and put my hands on my hips.

"You don't even know my plan." I said cooly, not implying that there were more of us.

The guards snorted, and then I turned to a loud sound in the distance. The guards who had chased Alex and Mark were dragging them back by the collars of their shirts.

They threw them on the ground next to me. They stood up, growling indignantly.

One of the guards took off his hood and glared at us.

"You three are going to be taken to Janson, and be….. Dealt with." He smirked.

I stood up, and pulled the two boys up with me.

"Guess we're out of time." I said quietly, but loud enough for the group above to hear.

Alex nodded nervously, and Mark grimaced, his fists balling at his sides.

The guards noticed the tension, and raised their weapons.

Then thirteen other Gladers dropped down from the vents, taking the guards completely by surprise.

Gabe swung down, kicking a guard in the face. Charlie landed and whipped her leg around, knocking another off his feet.

Joan stumbled a bit as she landed, but sprung right back up and punched the guard without the hood under the chin, making his head snap back.

Alex and Mark were tackling on another guard along with Bits, who was viciously kicking his ribs. Will had rushed over to help Gabe with his guard.

Once they were all knocked out and tied up, we make a dash for the door. Bits had taken the security ID card from one of the guards, and she handed it to me as we reached the exit.

Will, Gabe, Joan, and Alex had each taken a gun from the guards.

They were forming a wall between the Gladers and the rest of the space in the hallway.

The card wouldn't allow access, but we kept trying, even as we heard shouts from farther down the hall. I passed the card to Will, and turned around as he handed me his weapon. All four armed Gladers were pointing their guns, or launchers, as the guards had called them, at a slowly advancing group of men in black. Except for one in all white.

Janson was holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture, the guards around him holding clear shields that were as long as they were tall.

Janson spoke slowly, as if calming a raging animal.

"You kids have no idea what you're doing." He said.

I smiled sarcastically.

"Oh right, because Thomas' group was so much better at escaping than we are." I sneered.

Janson sighed.

"We're doing what's good for you. You'd never survive out there." He said irritably

Gabe shifted his grip on the gun, aiming right between Janson's eyes.

"Yeah, let me guess, Rat Man. WICKED is good?" He smirked.

Janson sighed again.

"I'm tired of dealing with this bullshit. Shoot 'em." He commanded, turning away.

But I had been expecting that, so before any of the WICKED guards could even lift their weapons, I shot the launcher at Janson. It hit him square between the shoulder blades. He collapsed on the ground, writhing and screaming.

The guards froze in shock, so Gabe, Alex, and Joan quickly took care of them.

"Got it!" Will exclaimed from behind. So we all turned and ran.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

We had to run through the main area of the warehouse before reaching the huge doors to the outside.

Will quickly swiped the card through the sensor, and the doors started to shift appart with a loud, grinding noise. As soon as they were wide enough for us to get out, we ran.

The Scorch was a bright, dry desert wasteland. The subtle wind whipped up sand in our eyes every couple of minutes.

We saw what looked to be a collapsed and abandoned mall, but avoided it, assuming there were Cranks inside.

We continued through the blinding desert light, until night fell and we decided to rest under a small rocky overhang. Alex got a small fire started, and we huddled around it, because the Scorch was surprisingly cold at night.

We had packed a couple bags with supplies, but we were quickly running out of food and water.

We all curled up on the sand for an uncomfortable night of cold sleep.

Joan was one of the first awake.

When I woke up, I saw her standing on a dune not to far from where our camp was. I got up and jogged over to her.

Her head turned a little as I approached, then she went back to staring at the vast expanse of desert that lay before us.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked her.

She sighed softly.

Then she glanced at me, and I got the memo.

I put a hand on her shoulder.

"She'd probably be very proud of you." I tried to comfort her.

She shrugged off my hand and crossed her arms.

"It still hurts though. Nothing could ever change that." She mumbled bitterly.

I decided it would probably be better to leave her alone, so I turned to go back to camp, when movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

A rusty, beat up truck was coming towards our camp from the opposite direction.

I started sprinting towards the group, shouting.

"Incoming strangers! Be prepared to fight!" I yelled, waving my arms.

Will and Gabe looked up, confused.

I pointed to the dunes behind them. They stood up to look.

They bent down and grabbed their launchers. Charlie took out hers, and Bits put down her plate of cold sausage and bread to grab the other one.

I looked behind me and saw Joan had also noticed and was limping at a fast, steady pace after me.

I reached the camp before the vehicle did, and by then the whole group was awake.

We stood in a defensive formation, the armed Gladers standing in a protective line in front of the rest of us.

The car rumbled to a stop, then the doors opened and two girls stepped out.

I noticed right away that they were older than us.

One girl with long black hair tied back in a braid looked about four or five years older, her bright green eyes glinting in the sunlight.

The other one looked closer to our age, and had short wavy brown hair. Her eyes were the thing that caught my attention, though. One was brown, but the other was more greenish.

They walked slowly towards our group, holding their hands up to show they were not armed.

Gabe pointed his weapon at them.

"Who are you, and what do you want with us?" He growled.

The girls looked at each other, but didn't respond.

Gabe aimed at the ground and fired. The gunshot echoed across the dunes, and they flinched.

"Answer me!" He yelled at them.

I gently put my hand on his shoulder.

"Chill, slinthead." I said.

He turned his head and glared at me sideways.

One of the girls stepped forwards, the one with black hair. Then I noticed it wasn't black at all but a rich deep brown color.

"My name's Evelyn, and this is Marley. We lead a band of Cranks not yet past the Gone." She said, looking sideways at her partner.

Joan looked at them sharply.

"So you guys are Cranks?" She asked.

They shrugged.

"Don't know yet." Marley responded this time, her mismatched eyes glancing nervously at the weapons.

I walked forwards and put my hands on my hips.

"Answer the second question. What do you want with us?" I was standing right in front of them.

Evelyn sighed.

"We help travelers through the Scorch." She said carefully, her eyes still on the Launchers aimed at them.

I searched her face for a moment, then turned around.

"Lower the weapons, guys. If they were going to attack, they would have done it already." I said, motioning for the to put the guns down.

They all dropped their cautiously, letting them slide to the ground. Gabe was the most hesitant, eyeing the newcomers with narrowed eyes. Then he glanced at me, and he slowly lowered the weapon to the ground.

The girls nodded, the motioned towards their vehicle.

"We can take you to our base. Gather your stuff and hop in." Marley said.

So we headed to go pick up our camp and leave.

We were packing up the last of our stuff when I looked over and noticed a black line on the back of Gabe's neck.

I walked over and poked him on the shoulder.

"What's on your neck?" I asked.

His hand immediately went to rub the back of his neck.

"I dunno, wasn't there before. Can you check what it is?" He said, trying to twist around to see what it was.

I pulled down the collar of his shirt. It was a tattoo, and it said something.

"It says Property of WICKED. Group C, Subject C28. The Roots." I read aloud.

He shifted to look at me.

"What the shuck does that mean?" He asked.

I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Marley studying the tattoo.

"It means you're tagged." She decided finally.

Gabe looked at me, then shrugged. I turned to finish packing, but he grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait, Cleo, you're marked too." He said, pointing at my neck.

I looked at him.

"Well, what does it say?" I asked him.

He turned my head around to get a better look.

"It says Property of WICKED. Group C, Subject C24. The Survivor." He read to me, his voice taking on a dramatic accent.

I slapped his hand playfully, and he pulled it away, smiling.

I looked over at the others, and could also make out faint lines against their skin. We got up and walked over to them.

I tapped Charlie on the shoulder.

"Hey, slinthead, hold up your hair for me." I commanded.

She looked at me quizzically, but did as I asked.

I read her tattoo to her.

"It says the same as mine, except that you are Subject C18, and it calls you the Backbone." I said.

She looked at me.

"The Backbone? What the bloody shuck's that supposed to mean?" She asked loudly. Across the camp, Joan and Bits looked up.

I waved them over, and on the way they also got Will, too. They jogged over, and we explained to them what we discovered.

Charlie read each of their tattoos.

"Bits is C5, the Heart, Joan is C22, the Flame, and Will is C30, the Mentor." She read in a loud clear voice.

Will smiled.

"Guess we know which shank is in charge." He said cheekily.

After we had packed up out scarce belongings, we all packed into the car and set off into the desert.

It was so empty. There were no people that we saw, only sand and the burnt-out husks of cars and buildings.

Evelyn was in the front seat driving, with Will sitting next to her. Marley sat in the back with the rest of us. Will looked back at us and smiled. I rolled my eyes.

After about three hours of driving, we reached their base. It was what looked like a giant warehouse, almost as big as the one WICKED was hiding in. But this one was in far worse shape.

There was a huge gap in the wall, and Evelyn drove the car right through it.

When we got out, I noticed we were in a smaller room, a garage of sorts. There was a skinny door in the corner that led to the main building's cavernous insides.

It was pitch black at first when we stepped in, then Marley hit a switch on the side of the wall, and the building lit up.

The first thing I noticed is that there were mattresses and sleeping spots spread out everywhere. People were milling about, some sitting together in groups and talking, others laying by themselves on some sleeping bags.

Evelyn led us to a rough circle of scrappy chairs and couches.

She waved her hand at the seats.

"Take a seat, and try not to touch anybody." She said bluntly.

Suddenly a back door burst open and a pack of girls ran in. There were about ten or so, and they all looked as though they'd been rolled in the dirt and stuck in a sand storm.

The lead girl, who had dark skin and hair cut almost to her scalp, jogged over to us. I heard a couple gasps from our group,and turned to see a couple of them staring wide-eyed with shock.

Of course, these girls must be from group B, who were in the other cafeteria, I thought.

Evelyn stood and nodded to the girl and another behind her, who had pale skin and blond-red hair.

"Harriet, Sonya, what'd you find?" She asked.

The girl called Harriet eyed us.

"Looks like less than you did." She stated drily.

She, Sonya, and the others walked towards our group, and were met by hugs from the people in our group who had meet them before.

Me, Charlie, Joan, Gabe, Bits, Will, Alex, and Mark were just standing there awkwardly.

Finally, Harriet and Sonya broke away to meet the rest of us.

Harriet stepped forwards and shook hands with each of us, then Sonya did too.

"Nice to meet you sticks. Those buggin' idiots wouldn't shut up about you." Sonya said, grinning.

I glanced at Joan.

"Sticks?" I asked her.

Sonya shrugged.

"It's slang from our maze." She said flatly.

Then she and Harriet turned and walked back to their group.

But there was something in that girl's eyes that had seemed familiar. The hair, the accent…

I had to cough to hide my gasp of shock. I knew why Sonya seemed familiar.

She was Newt's sister.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12**_

It was only a guess, but I knew I was right. But I decided that I wouldn't tell anyone.

At least not for now.

The rest of the Gladers were huddling in a group on the floor between the couches and chairs.

I walked over to join them, and sat down between Will and Gabe.

Will was trying to decide what to do next.

"Should we follow along with these guys, or should we leave?" He asked.

Gabe leaned in, trying to get close enough so the newcomers didn't hear.

"I don't trust them. I think we should leave." He growled.

Will shook his head, then turned to ask me, ignoring the scowl he got from Gabe.

"Cleo, how 'bout you?" He looked at me.

I shrugged.

"They haven't done anything yet, but they haven't denied whether they work for WICKED or not." I said, summarizing my thoughts.

Will considered this, then he nodded and turned to ask Joan who was sitting next to me.

I tuned out, and glanced at Gabe. He's been acting strangely ever since… well, I couldn't remember it exactly. His first major outburst that I've noticed was in the cafeteria at WICKED, but I thought it was just because Minho had been trying to hit on me.

I studied his face, but it was now in a stony calm expression, un-readable and very unlike him.

I glanced nervously around, trying to find out if anyone else noticed.

I caught Will's eye. He raised his eyebrow questiongly, and I eyeballed Gabe.

Will shook his head, signaling that we shouldn't call it out. So he had noticed.

Later, after Sonya and Harriet had brought us some food and water, we decided to ask Evelyn and Marley what their deal was.

The people chosen to ask, in case we prodded touchy subjects, were me, Charlie, and Gabe.

We found the two girls studying a paper on a big, round wooden table near the back.

As soon as they heard our footsteps, they whirled around, hiding the paper from us.

"What do you want?" Evelyn asked irritably.

Gabe glanced around.

"We wanted to know who you work for." He said, cutting to the chase.

The girls glanced at each other. Marley crossed her arms.

"Who says we work for anybody?" She asked roughly.

Gabe shrugged, and held out a crumpled piece of paper.

"Then I should assume this is some pass-time writing, then?" He said drily.

Charlie grabbed the paper from him.

"What the shuck is this, Gabe." She asked, her eyes scanning over the words printed on one side.

She froze, then shakily handed it to me.

It was a letter, I read it aloud.

"Now that you are in position for Phase two, please report immediately if they show up at your base. Signed, Ava Paige." I said in a clear voice.

Gabe pointed at them accusingly.

"You do work for someone, so you better tell us who it is." His voice sounded like daggers of ice.

Evelyn glared at him threateningly.

"Our group out numbers yours three to one. Best not to pick a fight with us." She said coldly.

Me and Charlie were still in shock over the letter, so we were unprepared when Gabe suddenly launched himself at the two girls.

"Tell us the truth!" He yelled at them, pinning each girl down with an arm.

Me and Charlie rushed forwards, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him off.

Evelyn and Marley straightened up, rubbing their necks where he had held them.

I heard a slight sound behind me, then Will whispered in my ear;

"We better go, they're not happy about what he just did."

I nodded, and grabbed Charlie's shoulder.

She flinched, then looked at me. I motioned towards the Cranks, and her eyes widened slightly.

The rest of the Gladers had gathered behind us, and we were almost completely surrounded by the band of survivors.

I gently tapped Gabe's shoulder.

He fidgeted around and glared at me.

"We need to get out of here, slinthead. Be prepared to fight." I whispered in his ear.

He grimaced, and balled his fists.

Will walked up to the two girls.

"We appreciate your hospitality, but we gotta go." He said calmly.

Evelyn looked at him sharply.

"You expect to be able to walk in here, accuse us like that, then leave?" She asked indignantly.

Will held her gaze cooly.

"Let us leave, and there will be no trouble." He said bluntly.

Evelyn glared at him, and Marley stepped forwards so she and Will were face-to-face.

"You try and leave, and I promise blood will be spilled." She growled.

Will's fists tightened.

"So be it, slinthead." He muttered under his breath.

Then we ran for the door.

The fourteen Gladers were sprinting through a big warehouse.

I was having flashbacks to when we were trying to escape WICKED. Rushing in a big group, people yelling in the background and the heavy pounding of pursuers.

A Crank pounced from the side and tackled a boy to the ground. He screamed and kicked at his attacker, eventually throwing her off.

Alex helped him up, and we kept running.

We reached a slit in the flimsy wall, and burst through, entering back into the Scorch.

Our feet were kicking up sand, throwing it behind us.

We raced through the desert, not even daring to look back until the warehouse was a small splotch on the horizon.

We slowed our pace to a brisk jog, the non-runners catching their breath in shaky gasps.

Charlie and Alex were supporting Joan as she limped after us.

We stopped only when we couldn't see the base at all. Joan sat down with a sigh, resting her leg on her sack she'd been carrying.

The other Gladers sat down too, drinking some water or just resting.

I looked at the horizon, and saw the sunset was being obscured by rapidly forming gray clouds.

I looked at the group, then walked over to Will.

"I know you shanks are busy resting your poor legs, but we need to find shelter. Those clouds don't look too friendly." I said, pointing to the west.

He looked up, then followed my gaze. His face went grim, and he nodded.

I was about to walk over to Joan, when the sound of coughing made me turn around.

Gabe was doubled over, each hacking wheeze wracking his whole body.

I ran over to him, and put my arm around his shoulder.

"Gabe, what the hell's wrong with you?" I asked sharply

He looked up at me, then shrugged off my arm.

"Nothing, just got some sand in my throat." He replied roughly.

He stood up, then walked away, as if to show me he's fine. But I knew he wasn't.

We had made camp behind a rusted, banged up and abandoned truck. We had first searched it for supplies, but found nothing.

The truck would hopefully provide some shelter from the wind and the possible rain.

I layed down on the sand, in between Charlie, who was already asleep, and Gabe.

He was just laying on his back, his arms folded beneath his head, staring at the stars above us.

I rolled over onto my side and looked at him.

"What're you thinking about" I asked.

He glanced at me, then looked back at the sky. He let out a long sigh, that sounded a little ragged and dusty.

"I'm wondering if it was all worth it." He said distantly.

He turned on his side so he could look me in the eyes.

"I can feel it eating away my sanity, Cleo." He said quietly.

My heart skipped, and I reached out to grab his arm.

"We're going to find a cure, if it's the last thing I do." I said firmly.

Gabe sighed again.

"But it might be the last thing I do." He mumbled, closing his eyes.

I felt my heartbeat quicken, but he was already asleep.

I turned to look at the sky this time, knowing I was far from sleep.

A loud booming sound shook me awake.

I stood up and looked around.

When I turned towards the horizon, I saw the clouds I had noticed earlier had become a great, rolling, black wave.

I quickly nudged everyone awake.

We gathered our stuff quickly, and started running for the distant mountains.

The night before, we had decided to head that way and see if we could find any civilizations to join.

The thunder crashed louder this time, closer.

I took a chance and glanced back.

Just then, a streak of lightning blazed from the sky like a column of fire, lighting up the dark.

We ran faster as lightning came down all around us, creating smoking craters in the sand where they hit.

I was sprinting near the head of the group, when a strong force pushed me sideways. I stumbled and fell to the side, just as lightning strikes where I had been standing.

I looked over, and saw a boy laying next to me.

I scrambled over and grabbed his arm. He flopped over with a groan, and I gasped.

It was Will.

I screamed over the thunder booming above our heads.

He was still alive, and whole from what I could see. His body was covered in burn marks.

I grabbed his arms and started dragging him along with me.

I felt a tremble go through his body, and he twitched his arms. I dropped him, and he rolled over onto his knees.

I helped him stand up, and we kept running.

We reached the base of the mountain, and found shelter under a rocky overhang.

We huddled in a tight pack until the storm passed.

The wounded were lying in a corner. I did a head count, and my stomach fell.

Out of the fourteen Gladers who escaped WICKED, there were only ten left, including the wounded.

Will let out a loud groan and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

I walked over to him.

"How you feeling, shank?" I asked him.

He looked up at me with a blank stare. My stomach twisted when I saw his eyes.

They had been a dark brown before, but now they were a light dusty burnt brown.

"Why is it so dark in here," He asked raggedly.

I looked outside at the blazing rising sun, then slowly turned back to him.

"Um, Will, it's sunrise." I said weakly.

His face contorted into panic.

"That shuck lightning must have blinded me." He said nervously.

Charlie, who had been listening nearby, walked up.

"It's probably just temporary." She said optimistically.

I heard Will sigh, and knew he didn't agree with her.

I turned back to where I had sat, and saw Gabe standing up. I was about to go talk to him, when his leg slipped and he stumbled back down.

I rushed forwards, but I stopped when I felt something small and cold pressed against the back of my neck.

"Yeah, you know what that is." A girl's voice said.

It was Evelyn.

I was still facing Gabe when he looked up and saw the girl holding a gun to my neck.

He stood up, and quickly covered the distance between us, his eyes sparking with anger.

"Lower the weapon." He growled at Evelyn.

She glared at him, then, quick as a snake, she grabbed my arms and held them behind my back.

"You take one more step, and there's gonna be a hole in her neck." Evelyn hissed at him.

I struggled, but stopped with a small yelp of pain when I felt a blade dig into my arm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a girl, one eye glinting amber, the other green. Marley.

Gabe stopped walking with a scowl.

By then the others had noticed, and were all gathering behind him.

Joan and Charlie were helping Will move around, while Bits moved everyone out of the way for them.

The two girls holding me glared malevolently at them.

"If you try to follow us, she'll be dead faster than you." Marley threatened, eyeing Gabe.

They started leading me towards their car, which had been expertly hidden behind the overhang.

I started panicking when I realized they were going to take me hostage.

I reared back and smacked the back of my head into Evelyn's face.

She let go of me, clutching her nose. Marley was on me in a second, wielding her knife. But I pulled one of my own out of a pocket.

We started sparring with each other, jabbing and slashing in turns. I realized I wouldn't have a chance as soon as Evelyn recovered, so I went right for the target.

I aimed as though I was going for her arm, but then slashed at her side, where the Griever had cut me.

Blood spurted from the wound, and Marley fell back clutching her side.

Evelyn had straightened up, and there was a steady stream of blood pouring from her nose. She glared at me, and raised her gun.

I heard a staticky sound behind me, and I turned to see Gabe holding a Launcher. His eyes were burning with such anger, I almost took a step back from him.

He shot the Launcher grenade at Evelyn, and it made contact with her leg.

She fell to the ground in a spasm of silver lightning, twitching and screaming.

Then I realized I felt pain, and looked at my leg where the bullet she had shot had grazed me. Blood was running from the wound like a waterfall.

The edges of my vision started going dark, and Gabe ran up to me right as I began to collapse.

He caught me, and held me as the world went black and I passed out.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13**_

I woke up, and the first thing I noticed was the dusty, empty smell of the air.

I groaned and sat up, my leg aching.

When I looked at it, I saw that there was a bandage on it, and it was fresh and white, too.

I turned to my side, and found Gabe sleeping in a worn-out chair next to me.

I looked around, and realized we were in a large tent, the edges flapping in the faint breeze.

Then, one of the flaps opened and a woman I've never seen before walked in.

She had pale skin and a tangled head of long brown hair. She noticed me watching her, and she smiled.

"My name's Mary. I'm a doctor for the Right Arm." She said warmly.

When she reached the cot I was lying on, she checked my bandage.

"Seems to have stopped bleeding, which is good."

She went over to a table and got a glass of water.

"Here, drink this." She said, handing me the cup.

I nodded my thanks, and took a sip.

Mary glanced at Gabe, who was still asleep.

"He insisted on staying with you 'till you were better." She said kindly.

I grinned.

"Yeah, he can be annoying sometimes, but he's loyal as a dog."

Mary laughed, then walked out of the tent again.

I had been laying there for a while, and then Gabe woke up in a fit of coughing.

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I tried to stand and get to him. But my legs were too weak, and I stumbled.

He caught me, and helped me back to the cot.

As soon as I was off my feet, he started coughing again.

I thumped him on the back, and it eventually subsided. I handed him the glass of water I'd been given earlier, and he took a huge gulp.

"Has it gotten worse?" I asked him quietly.

He looked at me.

"It comes and goes. Mostly all it does is make me mad, or cough." He groaned, rubbing his neck.

I glimpsed something on his arm and horrible memories came crashing back into my head.

"Hold on." I said, gently tugging down the collar of his shirt.

Black veins were running down his back and along his shoulders.

I gasped, letting go of the fabric.

He turned to look at me, his eyes filled with pain and sorrow.

"I'm going to have to leave soon, so I don't go completely insane and attack one of you guys." He said softly.

He turned away from me, then stood up and walked out the tent.

A dark color caught my eye, and I looked down at the ground where Gabe had been coughing.

There were splatters of blood.

I braced myself with the table next to my bed, and I slowly limped out of the tent.

As soon as I walked out, Joan, Charlie, and Bits, who had been standing nearby, ran over to me.

Joan grinned.

"Looks like I'm not the only veteran Runner now." She said jokingly.

I smiled, but it was forced.

Charlie noticed.

"Has he gotten worse?" She asked softly.

I looked at her, my eyes filled with sorrow.

I nodded.

Bits patted me on the shoulder comfortingly.

Joan didn't say anything, but her eyes told me how sad she really was.

I looked around and spotted him standing alone on a cliff, gazing at the mountains around us.

I was scared he was going to jump, try and end it all.

But he just turned around and headed towards the sparse forest on the other side of camp.

His normally smooth and confident walk had changed into a stiff, jerky stagger.

I couldn't take anymore of it, and I broke down in tears.

My friends did all they could to comfort me, but the only one who really understood was Joan.

When Addy had tossed the knife at Marie, she had felt what I'm feeling right now, but in a couple seconds.

Later, after I had composed myself, I went up to Mary and asked about Will.

She turned to look at me slowly.

"His burns will heal, but he's going to be permanently blind. I'm sorry." She said gently.

I nodded, my heart and brain feeling numb.

I walked into the tent, and noticed that the limp inflicted by the bullet was almost gone, which meant I would hopefully be able to run again.

Will was sitting at a table, gazing into space.

His head turned slightly at the sound of my footsteps.

"How you holdin' up, shank?" He asked gruffly.

I stopped and crossed my arms.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." I said mockingly angry.

Will grinned, then turned to face me.

Mary was right, I could tell his burns would heal.

But his eyes were blank and vacant, a pale brown color.

I pulled up a chair next to him.

"So, can you see anything" I asked.

He shrugged.

"I can see faint colors and shadows, and movement, but I can't get any clear details." He answered nonchalantly.

I nodded.

"So you're not completely blind." I stated flatly.

He shook his head, then looked me straight in the eyes.

"Gabe's gotten worse, hasn't he?" Will asked in a quiet voice.

I stood up, the chair squeaking back and making him jump.

"That's all anybody cares about! I wish people would just stop talking about it." I yelled angrily, stomping out of the tent.

I headed to the forest, forgetting that's where Gabe had gone earlier.

I found a small stream, then leaned against a tree, watching the water flow around the small pebbles protruding from the surface.

My mind had wandered, leaving my brain blank and completely unaware.

It was only when I heard footsteps behind me that I snapped back to my senses. I whirled around, and saw Gabe stumbling through the woods.

His arms were twitching, and his head was limp, lolling to the side.

My heart started racing, and I backed away slowly, the images of David and Addy going through my head.

I crept through the forest as silently as I could.

I looked back to see if he was following me, but didn't see him anywhere.

But when I turned back, he was right in front of me.

I leaped back with a shriek, but he clamped his hand over my mouth mid-shriek.

He glanced around quickly, then pushed me against a tree.

"Don't say anything. Just listen. I'm leaving. I'm getting worse by the hour, and I don't have many sane ones left. Don't try to stop me." He whispered in my ear, his breath hot against my skin.

He backed away, then stepped forward and kissed me gently.

I stuttered for words, but he was already walking away.

I swallowed, and the taste of blood filled my mouth.

Something crumpled in my hand, and I realized he'd pressed something into my fist.

It was a square fold of paper.

I carefully unfolded it, my hands shaking.

The note had two simple sentences on it.

It said I will always love you. But if you ever loved me, you need to let me go.

I felt fresh tears running down my face as I read the letter over and over.

The certainty I felt in my chest was like a big black pit.

Gabe was gone.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14**_

Apparently, I had fallen asleep in the forest, crying myself into a dreamless night.

Joan was taking Will for his morning walk when they found me slumped against a tree.

After they were sure I wasn't hurt, Joan gently shook me awake.

"C'mon Cleo, what're you doing out here?" She asked.

She looked at my red eyes and tear-streaked face, and noticed the paper clutched in my hand.

She gently took it from me, and unfolded it.

I heard her gasp when she read what was printed.

Will looked sharply in her direction.

"What the shuck is it, Joan?" He asked irritably.

I looked up at them.  
"Gabe gave it to me last night. When he said good-bye. Before he left." I answered in a quiet, shaky voice.

Will looked down in my direction, then walked slowly to Joan.

"What the hell does it say, Joan? Read it to me." He asked firmly.

She glanced at him.

"It says I will always love you. But if you ever loved me, you need to let me go." She read, her voice trembling slightly.

Will froze, his face contorting in agony.

Then he whirled around and started walking back towards the camp.

Joan rushed up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

"Where the shuck you think you're going, slinthead?" She asked him.

He shrugged off her hand, and turned to face her.

"We need to find him. He's clearly in a bad mental state." He said, resuming his steady pace.

Joan rolled her eyes, and caught up to him, directing him away from a tree he'd been about to run into.

I decided it would be a good idea to wash my face with the water from the nearby stream.

I let the coldness of the water wash away my tears and clear my mind.

When I had finished, I got up and walked to the camp.

Once I reached camp, word must've spread, and Charlie ran up to me, embracing me in a bear hug.

For once, I didn't mind, and squeezed her back.

I was met by similar reactions from Bits, Alex, and even Mark.

But what I really wanted to do was find Will, I needed to talk to him.

He was with Joan and another Glader I didn't know the name of.

When he heard the sound of my footsteps, he dismissed them.

I sat down next to him, and he turned towards my direction.

"Cleo, I know what you're thinking. But Gabe said to not follow him." He said suddenly.

I glared at him.

"But he's not right, and we might be able to help him, and-" I started in a rush.

He held up his hand to silence me.

"I never said we weren't going to, but we can't bring all of us." He said sturdily.

I paused, then nodded slowly.

"Who's going?" I asked.

Will looked around, then leaned in towards me.

"I think it should be just us two. We're his closest friends by far." He said quietly.

I nodded again, then stood up.

"When, then?" I asked softly.

Will followed my movement with his eyes.

"Tonight."

I had gone to pack provisions, hopefully not needing as much as when we all went as a big group.

A shadow fell across the floor, and I turned to see Bits, Joan, and Charlie standing in the doorway of the tent.

Joan limped forwards.

"What're you doing now, Cleo?" She asked sarcastically.

I knew she must have overheard somehow, and I straightened up, my arms crossed defensively.

"I'm going, and there's no way you're going to stop me." I said firmly.

They looked at each other, then Charlie glanced at me.

"We know we can't stop you, that's why we're coming with you." She said sharply.

I shook my head immediately.

"You can't, I wouldn't want you to get hurt in case we come across some Cranks beyond the Gone." I said.

They looked at each other again, no doubtedly thinking that Gabe might be included in that category.

I sighed, then walked up to them.

"Fine. But only Joan." I said defiantly.

I sat back, glaring at them, daring them to say no.

Then Joan shrugged.

"We leave tonight, if I heard right." She said, her stormy gray eyes piercing me.

I nodded slowly.

Bits and Charlie didn't look happy, but they knew I wouldn't change my mind again.

I was turning back to the supplies, when we heard a commotion outside.

We all glanced at each other, then hurried out the tent.

Sonya and Harriet where leading two girls up the slope, holding their arms behind their back.

I looked at Charlie, who shrugged.

"They helped us get here." She said flatly.

Then the sunlight glinted off brown and green, and we leaned forwards with a gasp.

They had brought Evelyn and Marley as captives.

When the girls reached us, I saw that Sonya and Harriet had tied their hands together with a thick, rough rope.

I walked up to them as they came to a halt.

The two girls forced Evelyn and Marley to their knees.

I crossed my arms and glared at them.

"I should kill you for that little trick you did at the base of the mountain." I hissed at them.

Evelyn met my eyes, and I saw pain in them.

"Please, you don't understand." She said quietly.

I waved at the hundreds of people surrounding them.

"Elaborate, then." I said cooly.

They glanced at each other, then Marley looked at me.

"That guy who attacked us, Gabe. We know where he is." She said shakily.

I stared at them, my heart freezing in place. I strided up to her, and pulled her up by the neck of her shirt.

"Where?" I asked angrily.

She twisted her head around so that I was looking directly in her green eye.

"That band of Cranks we led. He showed up, and we never refuse a member, no matter who they are. But then they started to revolt against us, and he took over. We barely got out alive." She wheezed, her voice cracking on the last sentence.

I snapped my head up, and glanced at Will, and Joan, who was supporting him.

We made eye contact, and I nodded.

Mary had decided to treat the wounds of the two hostages.

But me, Will, and Joan were ready to leave by the next hour.

I said bye to Bits, Charlie, and Alex.

We set out just as the sun started sinking behind the horizon line.

Fortunately, we found Evelyn's car halfway down the mountain. I got to drive, because Will couldn't see klunk, and Joan's leg was no good.

It was strange at first, but then I got used to it.

We drove for what seemed to be hours, but was probably only thirty minutes.

Once we could see the warehouse in the distance, I parked the car and we got out.

I hefted my Launcher over my shoulder, and the others did too.

We trekked the twenty or so miles until we were standing on a sand dune about 100 meters away from the Crank base.

One thing I noticed right away that was different, was that there were four guards pacing the perimeter of the building.

We immediately slid behind the dune, laying on our stomachs and peeking over the crest.

Joan turned to look at me and Will.

"Great, now how are we going to get in?" She whispered.

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, we heard footsteps behind us.

"Well, well, well. What have we got us here?" Snarled a ragged, deep voice.

We slowly turned to see two Crank guards holding knives.

The Crank who'd spoken advanced.

"Get up." He commanded.

None of us moved.

"Get up!" He snarled wielding his long, sharp knife.

I glanced at Joan, and then we rose slowly, Joan helping Will to his feet.

The other guard nodded with satisfaction.

"Follow us, and no tricks." She said roughly.

We followed her, the other guard coming up behind us.

The woman guard led us to the warehouse, nodding at the pacing guards.

As we walked inside, the guards outside followed us in.

I heard them snickering and giggling behind us as the two first guards led us to a table.

Bent over the table, studying a ragged and torn map, was Gabe.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapter 15**_

He looked horrible.

His shirt was torn in several places, and there were long bloody scratches showing on the bare skin.

The black veins had spread, now reaching to his hands and up his jaw.

His hair was dirty and limp, patches torn out, leaving bloody scabs.

When he looked up at the sound of our approaching feet, I saw that his eyes were red and bloodshot, his face gaunt and hollow.

His eyes made contact with mine, and I saw complete madness had taken root in his brain.

He turned towards us, slumping to his left side.

When he realized who we were, the madness was replaced with blazing anger.

He slammed his fist on the table, making us jump.

"I thought I told you shanks not to follow me!" He yelled, his voice sounding torn and raw.

I glanced at the others, then stepped forward. Gabe's head snapped over and he stared at me.

"Gabe, just listen. We can help you. Please, just come back with us." I pleaded.

He glared at me, his eyes raging with fire.

"You. I told you to let me go. Let me leave." He snarled at me.

I caught my breath, stepping back as he advanced.

"Seeing you here, ignoring what I told you. It makes me sick." He growled, his voice dripping with venom.

I stumbled back, my heart drowning in a vast black pit.

He lurched forwards, grabbing my shoulders.

"I should kill you! I hate you! If you ever did care about me, you wouldn't be HERE!" He screamed at me.

I panicked, trying to wriggle free, but despite his poor conditions, he was still very strong.

The madness had returned, mixing with the anger pooling in his eyes.

Joan and Will had tried to rush forwards to help me, but the guards held them back.

I realized I was on my own, and I had to try my best to help myself.

I tossed my hair back with a flick of my head, and stared calmly into his eyes.

"Maybe, but what would Vic think?" I asked him steadily.

His eyes widened, and his grip loosened.

I kept going.

"She was your closest friend before me. Do you really think she'd want you to escape the Maze, just to go insane and kill me?" I asked cruelly, my heart racing.

He let go, and took a step back.

I walked up to him, and he scrambled back a few paces. When I looked in his eyes, all I saw were fear and pain.

He held his head in his hands, breaking our eye contact.

"I'm so sorry, guys. But you see why you need to leave me. I'm not getting any better." He mumbled.

I saw a tear run down his face and splash on the ground.

My heart lurched, and I ran forward, embracing him in my arms.

He tried to break away, but I kept holding him, tears streaming down my face. Eventually he gave up, and hugged me back briefly.

When I stepped away, I saw his face was streaked with tears.

His eyes hardened, and a flash of insanity dripped back into them.

My heart sped up, and I stepped back.

Gabe turned to look at his guards.

"Lock 'em up." He said icily.

Then he turned his back to us as the guards dragged us away.

The guards had thrown us into an empty room with an open doorway that was partially boarded up, and guarded at all times.

I sat in the corner, my insides were numb with shock.

Gabe had always been a solid presence, keeping me stable like the roots of a tree.

And now it was like the roots had been ripped from the ground, tipping the tree over onto its side, left to rot.

With a start, I remembered the tattoos on our necks. Gabe's had labeled him as The Roots, and I remembered Janson reading out his name on the list of non-immunes.

All the sadness inside me was burned away by a boiling rage for WICKED. This was all their fault.

I looked up at Will and Joan for the first time since we'd been thrown in the cell.

Joan and Will looked at me expectantly, sensing my change of heart.

I stood up, and stretched.

"We need an escape plan." I stated, my voice rough from lack of water.

Will nodded.

"Sure, but how are we going to do that with only one fully able-bodied person?" He asked, waving vaguely in my direction.

Joan leaned her back against the wall.

"Well, maybe we don't have to do anything." She said flatly.

Me and Will turned to stare at her slowly.

"What the shuck do you mean, Joan?" He asked her.

Joan shrugged.

Will glanced in my direction, then scrambled over to where Joan was sitting.

"What the shuck are you talking about?" He asked more fiercely.

Joan looked between me and him, then put her head in her hands.

"I knew you still loved him, Cleo." She said, looking up at me.

"But I also knew that your love blinded you from the truth, so I got backup." She smiled sheepishly.

Me and Will stared at her.

"What did you-" Will started, but was cut off by a loud banging sound.

There were yells and shouts, and I hurried over to the door.

I peeked through the boards, and saw people crashing through the flimsy walls, waving guns and knives.

I turned back to Will and Joan.

"It's looks like an invasion. There's about three hundred people breaking in right now." I informed them.

A loud crashing sound came from right in front of our cell. I whirled around just in time to see our guard disappear.

A different shadow crossed the boards. Bright blue eyes peered through the slit at us.

"They're in here!" A very familiar voice shouted.

Charlie.

W

I ran up to the doorway.

"Charlie!" I called through the cracks.

Her shadow appeared right in front of me, her eyes shining with relief.

"Thank the bloody gods Joan told us to be backup. Who knows if you shanks would've even survived the buggin' night before these lunatics ate you." She smiled, a welcome sight.

Suddenly, a sharp blade sliced through the wood, breaking the flimsy boards.

Bits stood next to Charlie, holding an old, rusty axe.

"Whoops, probably should have told you to step back a bit first." She speculated.

I went back and helped Will with getting Joan to her feet.

When we stepped out of the room, we saw two things.

One, was that they had gathered all the Cranks and were herding them into a guarded room.

The second thing was that they had tied Gabe to a chair and were pointing Launchers at him.

I stumbled over a piece of splintered wood on the floor, then rushed over to them.

"What the hell are you shanks doing?" I asked angrily, shoving between the weapon wielders.

Gabe was slumped against the chair, his eyes empty and staring at the floor.

At first, I thought he was dead, but he raised his head at the sound of my voice.

I kneeled down beside him, resting one of my hands on his knees.

"Gabe? Are you okay?" I asked softly.

His eyes stared into mine, suddenly lighting with anger.

He screeched, an in-human sound with no words. He lunged at me, his jaw snapping and his arms struggling against the restraints.

I yelped and scrambled back, as an armed man whacked Gabe in the side of his head with the butt of his gun.

Gabe stopped struggling, coughing blood onto the sand at his feet.

He looked up, and this time the anger in his eyes were replaced with pain.

"Please….You have to-" His croaky words were cut off by a retching sound, and then he collapsed into a coughing fit, spewing dark, bloody mucus all over the sand.

My heart wrenched and my gut twisted.

I turned to the guards.

"Let me be with him. Alone." I commanded.

They looked at each other, then nodded. One handed me a pistol.

As soon as they were gone, Gabe glanced at me.

"You should leave me. I'm close to the Gone, if not already there." He whispered, his voice raw and rough sounding.

I felt tears starting to stream down my face again.

"I-I can't leave you. Not again." I stuttered, sniffing.

His eyes softened.

"You have to. Just promise me you'll remember me from the good days." He smiled sadly, his teeth stained with his own blood.

I nodded slowly.

I got up to leave, but he his head started jerking from side to side. His whole body started spasming.

I jumped back with a yelp when he almost kicked my face.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

His arms twitched, and he started violently struggling against the ropes, making low, snarling sounds.

I stepped back just as the first thread snapped.

He kept twisting his arms and kicking his legs, until the ropes binding him started to steadily break.

He screeched, a loud, jagged cry.

Then he leaped at me.

I scrambled back, screaming as his body slammed into mine.

The force of the blow threw me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me. While I lay there, gasping for breath, Gabe held his weight over me so I couldn't get up.

His hands held down my shoulders, while his knees squeezed my torso to hold me in place.

I struggled against his grip, trying to kick him off.

There were shouts in the distance, but I barely heard them.

My hand was hovering over the pistol, slowly wrapping my fingers around the handle.

Gabe writhed on top of me, screeching and yelling.

"Kill me, Cleo! Make right what you did wrong! KILL ME!" He screamed, little splatters of blood flying from his mouth.

He grabbed my hand holding the pistol, and held it against his chest.

The insanity in his eyes had clearly taken over his whole brain. I could tell the last of his sanity was quickly fading.

I tried to pull away the gun, but his grip was firm.

Then, for one moment only, his eyes cleared.

"Do it Cleo. Please." He gasped, his voice begging for mercy.

I shook my head, my eyes pooling with tears.

Then I pulled the trigger.

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

Gabe smiled for the last time.

"I love you." He whispered, a faint cry in the breeze.

Then he took his last breath, and stilled. Forever.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Chapter 16**_

I held Gabe's body, sobbing into his shirt, until Charlie gently pulled me away. I stumbled back, watching his body fall from my arms and flop on the floor. My insides were numb, and it felt like my brain couldn't control the rest of my body.

I felt hands lifting me to my feet, and guiding me outside.

The cool night breeze hit my face, freezing my tears into cold streaks on my skin.

They gently led me to a car, and shuffled me inside. I leaned my head against the window, staring blankly at the rising dunes.

All I could see in my mind though, was the smile on Gabe's face as he slipped into death.

How he told me he loved me.

How I was the one who pulled the trigger.

I vaguely remember Bits and Joan getting into the car beside me, exchanging worried glances as they watched me fall into my own mind.

Will sat in the front, next to Charlie, who was driving.

The rest of the rescue team was marching behind us like an army.

When we reached the camp, the rescue team started to carry the diseased to the woods. I realized Gabe wasn't the only one who died in the rescue.

As if summoning him, I saw two former Gladers solemnly carrying his limp body behind the rest.

My feet carried me after them, following the body of my oldest friend.

The group stopped when we reached a grassy clearing. I saw small mounds of earth, and realized this must be their graveyard.

I followed the two boys carrying Gabe's corpse to a flat spot in the clearing.

Shovels were passed out, and I took one.

When I started digging, I felt the presence of others around me.

I looked up to see Joan, Charlie, Bits, Will, and Alex all silently shoveling beside me.

A small bud of hope bloomed inside me, and I turned back to scooping dirt from the slowly growing crater in the ground.

Once it was as wide, and twice as deep as the body, we put down our tools.

I walked over to Gabe's body. His skin was cold and his eyes were closed. I pulled out the note he had given me a few days before.

I carefully placed it on his chest, right above the bullet hole. The paper started to turn red as the blood seeped into its surface.

I rested my forehead against his, a single tear falling from the corner of my eye and splashing on his cheek.

Then the burriers picked up his body, and carefully lowered it into the ground.

I picked up my shovel, and we started pouring the sandy dirt back into the hole.

Once there was only a subtle mound to mark his grave, I placed a single daisy on top, like I'd done with Victoria's.

The day after the rescue, I had been sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking out over the mountain range and thinking about the Glade, when I heard a commotion down below.

I looked over the rim of the earth, and saw a car drive up to the abandoned road that had been purposefully blocked with banged-up old cars.

The vehicle was one I'd never seen before, and had two big bull horns attached to the front.

It stopped, and eight figures stepped out. There were six guys and two girls.

One of them stopped and glanced up, the afternoon sunlight glinting off his olive-colored skin.

I sucked in a breath, and leaned forwards.

It was Minho, and now I recognized Newt, Thomas, Aris, and Frypan as well. The other three were unfamiliar to me.

Then I realized they were headed right for the sniper's range.

I got up and started running for the camp, sprinting over rocks and cracks in the earth.

Just as I reached it, I heard gunfire.

The people who were milling about glanced up at the sound, and saw me running towards them.

Charlie stood up.

"What the shuck is going on, Cleo?" She asked.

I skidded to a halt, bending over to catch my breath.

"It's–it's Thomas' group." I gasped.

Her face morphed into surprise.

"Well bloody shuck me. I thought we'd never see those shanks again." She muttered.

I nodded, the same thought having crossed my mind.

We heard another round of fire go off, making me flinch.

I exchanged looks with her, and we ran back to the cliff.

Peeking over we saw that Harriet and Sonya had confronted the group, which was fortunately all still alive. They had recognized Aris, who had been with them in the Maze.

After they had revealed themselves, Harriet turned towards the mountains and whistled, waving her arms.

"All clear, guys!" She shouted.

The snipers stood up from their hidden positions, waving down at the group.

Later, the group arrived, and met Vince, who was the leader of the Right Arm.

They were just talking, normal conversation from what I could tell. I looked over and saw Bits watching Aris from beside a tent.

The group wandered apart to explore. Newt, Thomas, and Minho were all wandering towards the forest.

Me and Charlie walked up to them.

I stopped, my arms crossed across my chest.

"Well, well, well. Look who actually survived the Scorch." I exclaimed.

They froze, then slowly turned around to face us.

When I made eye contact with Minho, I saw a spark of relief.

Newt smiled.

"Same to you. Not because you're girls or anything." He said quickly.

I noticed something a little off-kilter about him.

It reminded me of Gabe.

I remembered in the WICKED base, hearing Newt's name called on the list of non-immunes.

My heart ached when I thought of what Gabe had gone through, and knowing this boy would, if he wasn't already, go through the same thing.

I pitied his friends, too. Losing a loved-one to the Flare isn't fun.

Minho leaned back against a tree, eyeing me skeptically.

"So, where's that guardian angel of yours?" He asked cooly.

I glared at him so fiercely, he raised his hands in a consolentary gesture.

"Alright, I'm sorry I asked." He mumbled defensively.

The comment had ruined the moment for me, so I turned and stormed away.

I figured it'd be a good time to visit his grave, but a certain couple of idiots were between me and the forest, so I decided to go around the back way.

Once I had reached the clearing, I picked a daisy to place on top of the dirt.

The old one was just a limp stem and a couple brown petals.

I swiped it away, and laid the new one where it had been.

The earth beside it was grassy and clean, so I sat down and wrapped my arms across my legs.

A cool, gentle breeze blew through the forest, making the leaves rustle.

The leaves were still rustling even after the wind was gone. I turned around and saw a shadow leaning against a tree. My heart stopped as I saw a flash of blonde hair and brown eyes.

Then I blinked, and it was gone. In its place stood Newt.

I sighed, then turned back towards the grave.

Newt shuffled awkwardly, then came over to me. He looked down at the mound of dirt, and his eyes softened.

"Now I understand why you got so bloody mad at Minho."

I looked up at him.

"But he didn't know, so I guess it was my bad." I sighed.

Newt shrugged.

"You could say that, but Minho's a buggin' slinthead, so we can always blame things on him." He said drily.

The corners of my mouth lifted into a small smile.

"I guess you're right."

Newt nodded, then slowly sat down next to me.

"So, you never told me. How long were you in that Maze of yours?" He asked.

I squinted at the sky.

"Um, I was the fourth Greenie, so about two years."

His eyebrows raised in surprise.

"That's about how long I was there. What was your job?"

I looked at him, then shrugged.

"It's complicated."

"So tell me. It's not like I have anything to do." He sighed.

I looked back at the sky.

"So, I'm assuming you know what a Runner is. I became Keeper of the Runners after about two months. Then, I think it was about 18 months after that, the Doors closed before I made it back to the Glade." I began.

When I looked at Newt, he seemed thoughtful.

"So you survived the buggin' Maze before Tommy and Minho. What happened next?" He asked.

My eyes had wandered back to the daisy.

"I'm not sure. I blacked out right as the shucking walls closed. I had a bleeding wound from a Griever, mind you. Then I woke up, fresh clothes, clean hair, healed gash. There was a spear lying next to me, so I grabbed it and ran for the Glade."

Newt looked entranced in my story.

"Go on." He encouraged.

I nodded.

"Well, I'm not sure if this happened at your place, but the walls hadn't closed, and there were Grievers everywhere. I saw one had pinned….pinned Gabe, so I chucked the spear at it." My voice trembled on his name.

Newt looked at me.

"Do you know how long you were out?" He asked.

"Yes, about two months."

He looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"There's no way you could have just been lying there for two months."

I shrugged.

"There's no way for me to know what happened."

Newt glanced at the forest, then stood up.

"Okay, I'm gonna go see if I can find some food. See ya later." He said, walking off towards the camp.

I stood up too, and was about to follow him, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

Thinking of the shadow I saw before, I turned, Gabe's name on the tip of my tongue.

The figure was already speeding through the forest, so I chased it.

Whoever it was, they were fast. Dodging roots, fallen tree trunks and rocks, I had a difficult time keeping up.

But, then the figure tried to leap over a root, but their foot caught on it, and they tumbled to the ground.

I leaped over the root, and pointed the knife I pulled from my sheath at them.

"Turn around slowly, and you won't be impaled." I hissed.

The person slowly turned around, and I was surprised to see it was Minho, who was looking very sheepish.

I rolled my eyes and sheathed my knife.

"I could have hurt you, slinthead. Now get up and tell me what you were doing." I sighed.

Despite sitting on the ground, scraped up from the fall, he still managed to smirk.

"Well, didn't know you cared that much."

I rolled my eyes again, then hauled him to his feet.

"You didn't answer the question."

He smiled.

"I didn't? Ask me again, and maybe this time I will."

I glared at him.

"Are you always this annoying? Or is it just me?"

He shrugged.

I was considering just walking away, but I still needed to know what he was doing. My knife was back in my hand and I held it up to his neck.

"Tell me what you were doing, and stop the games." I said firmly.

Minho flinched as the blade left a little droplet of blood under his chin.

"I wanted to know why you got so shucking mad at me before. So I…." He trailed off, his eyes betraying his guilt.

He looked at the knife and cleared his throat.

"I asked Newt if he could find out what I did wrong. But I followed him, and listened to you shank's whole conversation." He sat back, rubbing the little red smear on his neck.

I shrugged, then turned and walked away. I've wasted more than enough time on him.

He got up, and I heard him follow me.

I turned around to tell him to get lost, but he walked right up to me.

"So have you forgiven me?" He asked.

I glared at him.

"You never said you were sorry."

He smirked again.

"Do I need to?"

I put my hands on my hips.

"Yes." I snapped.

He glanced around, the smirk still plastered on his face.

"Alright then."

He grabbed my arm holding the knife, then he leaned forward and kissed me.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Chapter 17**_

Weeks later, Thomas and his group had gone all the way to the Last City, WICKED's whole base of operation. They had gone to save Minho and all the other captured immunes. But, while they were doing that, little did they know, the Right Arm already had spies in WICKED headquarters. Cleo, Charlie, Joan, Bits, Marley, and Evelyn were posing as doctors and nurses. Will was still at the Right Arm, passing along information he received from radio waves, in code form.

I was hurrying through the starch white halls of the lab, my shoes making sharp, clicking noises as I rushed to the window.

I come to this room everyday, hoping it will be empty, but it never is.

After all, they want to find a cure as fast as possible, and the test subject is almost always strapped to the machine.

When I reached it this time, however, I looked in and saw that they were giving him a break. He was staring at the floor, his eyes blank, and his face shining with sweat.

His dark hair was starting to fall from it's normally gelled-up position, and his olive-complexion was always paler the next day, as they slowly drained the life out of him.

I glanced at the metal plate labeling the room.

It said Subject A7, The Leader.

They were words that had long since been memorized in my head.

I looked back through the window when Minho started screaming, the tests having started back up again.

His mind was going through virtual stimulation similar to the Maze, getting his brain to work harder and helping the scientists with their studies.

He was thrashing and struggling against his restraints, his eyes wide-open, but I knew he couldn't see anything besides what was in his mind.

The screams were echoing in the room, escaping through cracks in the walls.

I turned and quickly walked away. I couldn't take it anymore.

I reached an elevator, then pressed the button for floor three. Just as the doors started to close, Joan limped in.

I nodded hello at her, and she tipped her head in response.

But once the doors were closed, she hurried up to me.

"Cleo, I found out about something." She said quietly.

She glanced at the floor number, then looked back.

"We need to go. Thomas and his friends are coming soon, and we can't be seen." She whispered.

My eyes widened.

This day had been coming for a long time, but I still wanted to free Minho before the whole city came down.

I shrugged.

"I guess we'll have to hope they free them all in time." I said flatly.

Joan nodded, her eyes clouded.

I stared at her skeptically.

"Is she worse?" I asked quietly.

Joan shook her head.

"She hasn't been showing signs of infection, but there's no way she hasn't caught it yet." She mumbled.

I peered at her suspiciously. She was hiding something, but I couldn't tell what.

The door stopped at floor two. Joan quickly stepped away from my side.

When the doors slid open, Charlie walked in. She briefly nodded hello, then walked to stand on my other side.

Once the doors closed, she glanced at me and Joan.

"You shanks ready?" She asked.

We nodded.

She turned to look at the door.

"Good. Now all we need to do is get Bits." She said.

I heard a faint sound of distress come from Joan.

"Um, she said she'd catch up with us." She said quickly.

I exchanged a look with Charlie, then shrugged.

"Okay, fine. But she better bloody hurry." Charlie said flatly.

When we reached floor three, the doors opened with a small ding sound. We quickly walked out, hurrying past a man in a white suit.

Janson glanced at us curiously as we passed him. I felt his eyes follow us as we rushed towards section 3C.

I stopped paying attention to him as we turned the corner.

We were walking so fast, our white lab coats were flying behind us.

Each window we passed had some terrifying experiment going on behind it. We rushed until we reached the second to last room.

I looked in and saw Bits sitting on a bed, patiently waiting. There was a bandage on her arm from her recent dose of medicines.

Joan swiped her card, and the door slid open with a soft hiss.

We hurried inside. Joan walked over, embracing Bits in her arms.

"I thought you said you'd catch up with us?" Joan asked her.

Bits shrugged.

"They told me I needed medicine, so I let them give it to me." She said nonchalantly.

Charlie glanced out the door, then looked back.

"Hurry up! We need to go before someone comes back." She whispered.

I nodded, and followed her out the door as Joan helped Bits off the bed.

I crept up to the corner, and peeked around, checking if the coast was clear.

The halls were empty, so I motioned for them to follow me.

We hurried past the other windows, keeping our heads down.

As we turned the corner, towards the elevators, two guards joined us.

Evelyn and Marley were holding their guns pointing down, their hooded helmets hiding their faces.

The elevator doors opened just as we walked up to it.

Teresa walked out.

She was the girl from Thomas' group, and was tagged as The Betrayer.

As we passed her, she glanced at us suspiciously.

We all bunched into the small elevator space, which expanded a bit as the advanced technology sensed we were crowded.

The doors closed, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Marley took off her helmet, her face flushed and sweating.

"Good lord, these things are so hot." She mumbled, wiping her face with her gloved hand.

I looked at Evelyn, whose helmet was still hiding her face.

"We need to get out, fast." She said, her voice broken up by the mask.

We nodded, and the elevator stopped moving, having reached the bottom floor.

Marley put her helmet back on right before the doors opened.

I was about to walk out, but heard coughing behind me.

When I looked back, I saw Bits doubled over, Joan thumping her back.

I exchanged a glance with Charlie.

Joan noticed.

"It's just a cold, guys." She exclaimed defensively.

She was glaring at us, challenging us to argue with her.

Charlie shrugged and walked towards the door, following Evelyn and Marley.

I took a step forward, but stopped when a voice spoke behind us.

"Well, well, well, Where do you six think you're going?" A man's voice said, dripping with sarcasm.

We froze, and slowly turned around.

Janson stood between us and the elevators, his arms crossed and a confident smirk on his face.

Behind him, five guards were holding Bits, who was struggling to no avail.

Joan took a threatening step towards him, but two guards let go of Bits and pointed their weapons at Joan.

Evelyn and Marley came up to our sides, pointing their Launchers at the other guards.

Janson raised an eyebrow at them.

"Two rebellious guards? Let me guess who it is, then." He smirked.

They paused, then they hefted their weapons higher.

"I seem to recall you getting hit by one of these before, Janson. Want it to happen again?" Evelyn hissed.

The guards holding Bits all looked up. They let go of the girl, and raised their weapons.

As soon as their controlling grip vanished, Bits sprang into action.

She grabbed the gun of one of the guards, and hit him under the chin with it, making his head snap back.

Then she smashed it into the back of another's head, knocking him out.

Evelyn and Marley shot their Launchers at the other two remaining guards.

Once all the guards were out, Bits slowly circled around Janson until she was standing with us, her weapon aimed at him the whole time.

I glared at him, feeling as though all my hatred for WICKED was burning in my eyes.

"We're going to leave, and there's no way you'll stop us." I said cooly.

He smirked.

"I don't think that's true." Janson said arrogantly.

Bits head snapped up.

"What the shuck do you mean?" She asked.

In response, Janson pushed a button on his watch. A screen behind him lit up, showing us a live video of Minho being tortured by the WICKED scientists.

He turned to look at us.

"I don't think you'd be willing to leave subject A7 here." He tipped his head, his eyes like ice.

I felt a few things mentally snap inside my head.

I took a menacing step forwards.

"Don't call him a subject. His name is Minho." I growled.

Janson looked at me, a spark going off in his eyes.

The way he was looking at me, like he'd found out my deepest secret, chilled me to my bones.

I grabbed the gun from Bits, and pointed it at him.

"Follow us, and there's gonna be a hole in that rat face of yours." I threatened.

Then we turned and ran.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Chapter 18**_

The patrol cars were out, because it was past mandatory curfew.

We headed towards the walls, avoiding any confrontations.

I looked up, and saw the top of every building had guards pacing. The walls had cannons aimed beyond the border, at the Crank-infested city.

A car passed just as we ducked behind a corner.

Charlie looked up after it had passed.

"Shuck, it seems like they're increasing security," She whispered.

Joan nodded, watching another car pass a couple buildings down.

We stood up and hurried over to the base of the wall. It towered above us like a mountain. There was a small doorway hidden in its side.

I walked over and opened it. On the other side was a small room. I walked in, and stopped at a box in the back corner.

I lifted the lid, and pulled out several other guard outfits.

When we had all changed, we marched to the official guard doorway at the bottom of a narrow staircase.

Evelyn stopped, then waved us forwards.

We all ran up, one by one. Once we were all climbing, Evelyn glanced around, then followed us.

The inside of the wall was as complex as the Maze. The hallways and stairwells criss-crossed more often than not.

Only a couple guards passed us, and they didn't even give a second glance.

There were sewer holes at normal intervals, and as we ran past them, I couldn't help thinking about how easy it would be to sneak in through there.

That's how I got my idea.

I tapped Marley and Joan on the shoulder.

The two girls turned around and looked at me.

I pointed at the sewer holes.

"What if we escaped through there?" I asked quietly.

They looked at each other, then Marley told Evelyn to stop.

The group came to a halt, and they turned around.

"What is it?" Evelyn asked.

Marley motioned at the nearest grate.

"We could escape through there." She suggested.

Evelyn tilted her head, considering. Then she nodded and walked over to it.

She grabbed one of the bars, then looked up at us.

"A little help here?" She asked.

We all got down around the sewer hole, and grabbed the grate.

It took a couple tries, but we finally managed to pull it off.

As I looked down in the hole, a faint breeze came from the blackness. It smelled steril and dry, like the Scorch, but with the gross, rotting smell of the sewers.

I glanced at Charlie.

"Bet you anything there's gonna be Cranks down there." I speculated.

She nodded grimly.

I looked over at Evelyn.

"Well then who wants to go first?" I asked, sitting back and rubbing my hands together.

Evelyn looked around at the others, then threw me her flashlight.

I caught it, then jumped down the hole.

My feet hit the bottom with a loud splash that echoed down the dirty tunnels.

I flicked the switch on the flashlight, and both ends lit up.

The group above saw the light and, one by one, they jumped down next to me.

The solid armor made clanking noises as they made contact with the ground.

We were about to start walking, but then we heard voices up ahead. Not the insane cackling of a Crank, but the normal conversation of humans.

I heard a switch being flicked, and herded everyone into a shallow crack in the wall.

Everyone had just barely managed to fit, and the hallway blazed with light. The overhead lights had turned on.

I could now hear the soft squelching sound of footsteps that accompanied the voices.

Three people passed by our hiding place, their shadow blocking the light momentarily.

From the sound of their voices, it was three boys, about our age.

Charlie and Joan had expressions of shock on their faces, but I didn't know why. Until one of them spoke.

"I don't know how you shanks plan on getting him back, but you might want to hurry." A voice spoke to the other two. It wasn't one I recognized, but only the Gladers from group A and C used slang like that.

Whoever these people were, they were either working for the Right Arm, or the rebellion that lay just beyond the walls.

The voices faded as they hurried down the way we came.

As soon as they were gone, I looked at the others.

"We should follow them." I said quietly.

They nodded.

So we crawled out of the crack, and went in the direction the people had gone.

We turned a corner, and saw them leaving by a steep staircase in the wall, that led up to higher grounds.

Evelyn glanced back at us.

Then we followed her up the stairs, moving as quietly as we could.

Our shadows fell across the bare stone walls, ghosts silently following us above ground level.

When we reached the top, several stories up the wall, I saw three figures dashing to the other side, their backs pressed against the walls behind them.

The city lights shone on a figure as he passed between columns, lighting up his blonde hair and limping figure.

I glanced at the others.

"Three guesses as to who they are." I muttered.

Evelyn nodded gravely.

"We got out just in time, but now we should follow them all the way." She whispered.

Marley shook her head.

"From what I heard down in the tunnels, they were only trying to figure out a plan and get in, so there's no way they'd attack yet." She pointed out.

I grabbed my radio device, smiling.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." I waved it in her face.

The little flashing light at the top was green, so I pressed in the send button.

"This is Survivor, we have located A2 and Glue. Mentor, what is their position?" I spoke into the the little microphone on the back.

I pressed the receive button, and waited as static escaped the speaker. But, then a voice responded to my message.

"This is Mentor. A2 and Glue went with unknown A to scout." Will said, his words robotic and hard to understand.

I switched off the radio, then nodded at Marley.

"You were right. They are just scouting for possible ways in." I got up and stretched my legs.

Bits stood up to, but she was looking farther up the wall.

"Guys, look!" She exclaimed, pointing.

We followed her finger to where she was pointing, and saw the three figures had re-appeared.

They were looking through a telescope at the WICKED headquarters building.

Charlie pulled out her binoculars, and looked at where they were looking.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." She muttered, handing them off to Joan.

When Joan had looked, she gave it to me.

I peeked through the glass eye-holes and saw Teresa working in her lab.

I handed the binoculars to Bits.

"I bet they're shocked, but we saw her a couple hours ago." Evelyn said as she looked through them after Bits was done.

Bits looked back up at the three people above us.

"Yeah, especially since it was her fault Minho got taken in the first place." She agreed.

I glared at her sharply, but she completely missed it.

When I looked back up at Thomas and his buddies, the three of them had vanished.

We had been camping out just beyond the walls, sheltered by another Right Arm spy who was located in the town outside the Last City.

He has a small shop for selling herbs and special medicines. Behind his small stand, is the tent where he lives, and where we were resting.

Earlier, there had been a rally in front of the wall gates, and the guns had started to shoot, something they've never done before.

We arrived hours after it had happened, and there were WICKED guards patrolling the worn down streets, kicking over the bodies.

I realized they must be looking for someone.

Joan must have had the same thought, because she looked up at me.

"They're looking for someone." She announced.

I nodded.

"Way to state the obvious, Flame." I heard a snicker from Evelyn.

Joan whipped her head around and glared at her.

Then she turned her gaze back to me.

"We should use our real names in public, so they can't track us." She criticized.

I shrugged.

"Maybe, but it's more fun." I smiled.

Joan rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, it can't be us. These canons shot while we were still at WICKED." She commented.

Charlie looked up from the lock she was trying to pick.

"Yeah, but it was probably Thomas and his friends. Janson is completely obsessed with him." She pointed out.

Joan shrugged, then nodded her head at the metal in Charlie's hand.

"Where did you get that?" She asked.

Charlie pointed to a small trunk in the back of the tent.

"David said we could find some useful things in there if we needed them. So I looked through it and found this." She said, holding up the lock.

Bits cocked her head at Charlie.

"So you're trying to pick it?" She asked curiously.

Charlie shrugged.

"What else am I supposed to do with a locked lock?" She asked indignantly.

Bits looked away, and Charlie went back to digging in the lock with a paperclip she had found, probably from the chest as well.

I walked over to the trunk to see if I could find anything useful.

A piece of paper caught my eye. It was old and yellow, and torn around the edges.

When my hand touched it, it crumpled a bit, layered in dust.

I pulled it out, and caught a whiff of a smell. My heart sped up as I recognized it.

The map smelled of blood.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Chapter 19**_

We all sat around the map, which was lain across the sandy floor.

The others were studying the map, while I was trying to figure out where I'd seen it before.

When I sniffed it again, I smelled the distinct odor of disease. It smelled sweaty and rotten, like bile.

There was a small rip in the map that looked like it had been stabbed by a blade of some sorts.

I gently fingered the tear, the smell of the old paper invading my nose. It brought back memories of the Crank warehouse and, even further back, memories from the Glade.

When I thought that, I realized something. It was like a lightning bolt hitting me in the chest.

The smell was almost exactly like what the warehouse had smelled like.

Remembering the map that had almost constantly sat on the table, I took another look at it.

Then I reached out and flipped it around.

On the other side I saw some words scribbled out in faded ink. I leaned forwards to read them.

It said: " Sometimes the person you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger".

I gently brushed my finger across the paper, feeling the worn softness of it. A tear slipped down my cheek and splashed on the words, making them blurry and smeared.

Charlie, who had leaned down to read the words, gasped and looked up at me.

"Do you think….?" She started, then trailed off once she saw the distress on my face.

I stared out into the blazing blue sky, my eyes unfocused.

"He knew what was going to happen. He planned it all out." I whispered.

Then I curled up in a ball, my arms wrapped around my knees, and let the tears silently stream down my face.

The others looked at each other with worried expressions, and the silence continued until Will spoke out.

"So? What does it say, guys?" He asked irritably.

Joan glanced over her shoulder at him in exasperation.

"It says, sometimes the person you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger." She growled.

Will glared in her direction.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He snapped back.

Charlie got up and waved the paper in his face angrily.

"It was written by Gabe, you bloody slinthead!" She huffed.

Will's face fell, and his hand reached out to touch the map.

"From the warehouse…." He said, looking up towards Charlie.

Evelyn and Marley looked up from the chest.

"Our warehouse?" Marley asked.

Bits nodded.

"It's the one that was on Gabe's, or your, table when he captured these three." She said, waving her hand to me, Joan, and Will.

I wiped the tears off my cheek, and grabbed the map from Charlie. Smoothing it out, I traced a line from WICKED's base to where the Right Arm was hiding out.

Joan was standing over my shoulder, studying the map. Charlie crossed her arms and frowned.

"You over your breakdown, shank?" She asked.

I glared at her.

"Did you seriously just say that to me?" I growled.

Charlie shrugged, and paced around the tent.

"I guess. I mean, it's always about Cleo, isn't it? Oh, poor Cleo, she had to shoot her manic boyfriend in the chest." She hissed coldly, stopping to turn towards me.

I shot to my feet, and before anyone could do anything, slammed my shoulder into her chest, knocking her to the ground. Complete silence had washed over the group as I stood over her.

"You don't understand, you slinthead. Every single friend I had in the Maze, the originals, they're all gone except him." I said menacingly, pointing at Will.

Charlie grunted and pushed herself up into a sitting position. I leaned down to face her, not caring that there were tears pricking the corners of my eyes.

"You have no right to tell me how to feel." I glared at her one last time, then stormed quickly out of the tent.

The cool night air brushed my hair out of my face and chilled the tears in my eyes. I took a deep breath in and out, a small puff of misty air blowing from my mouth. I glanced at the walls surrounding the last city, and thought of Minho, still trapped inside. My gut clenched as I remembered his horrid screams echoing through that room, watching helplessly through the window.

I shook out my hair. Charlie was right. I need to stop getting so emotional over these things. I heard footsteps behind me. They stopped right near me.

"Beautiful night." Will said quietly.

I nodded.

"One of the best." I agreed.

He looked at the ground, then came up beside me.

"You know Cleo, even though I can't see anymore, I can remember." He looked up at the stars.

"I remember the first days in the Glade, everyone confused and scared. But the person who ultimately put us together was Gabe." I flinched when he said his name.

Will looked in my direction.

"He was calm, well, calm-ish, in the chaos. He organized us and gave us jobs, waning our fear. I said he should be leader, but he refused. He said he wanted to be able to help in other ways." He nodded at the bracelet on my wrist.

"He made that. I remember watching him in his breaktime, weaving those leather strips together." Will turned to face me completely.

"That is why it's okay to remember. Never forget. Don't listen to what Charlie says. We're all wound up and tense." He said patting my shoulder.

Then he turned back to the tent and left me alone with my thoughts.

I looked down at the faded brown strip on my wrist. My face hardened, and I untied the knot at the end. It slipped off my hand, and I gently rested it on a sack of flour sitting on a chair. I looked back at the tent, a fire now blazing inside, the shadows of my friends sitting in a group.

Then I got up and walked away.

The streets were crowded with people. I turned at a corner and sensed a shadow following me. I decided to wait and see who it was and what they were doing. At the next corner, I slipped behind the wall and unsheathed my knife. Right when the person turned the corner, I yelled and pounced, bearing my blade.

At the last minute, I realized it was Bits, and I drove my velocity into an arc that barely avoided her. She leaped back with a screech, but I clamped my hand over her mouth. Once the shock had passed, I carefully lifted it away.

She inhaled slowly, then let out a long breath.

"You scared me!" She exclaimed.

I turned away from her.

"You're lucky I didn't hurt you. Why are you following me?" I asked.

She huffed and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, I saw you leave, and told them that I needed to use the bathroom. So then I followed you, and…" She trailed off, noticing that I had began to walk away.

She rushed after me, grabbing my shoulder.

"Hey! Where are you going?" She asked exasperatedly.

I shrugged her off, not turning around.

"Go back." I said flatly.

She reached forwards and grabbed my wrist.

"Not without you!" She cried.

I whirled around and glared at her.

"Go. Back. Now." I hissed.

She crossed her arms and pouted.

"No." She lifted her chin defiantly.

I snorted and resumed my walking.

"Well, if you want to die, I won't stop you. But I'm not going back." I said coldly.

Bits stared at me.

"You're going to die?!" She gasped.

I sighed angrily, but kept walking without turning around.

Bits looked between me and the distant light of the tent, and I could feel the mental struggle she was going through.

The sounds of her footsteps faded away as she ran back to the group. I mentally smacked myself. I'm so stupid! Now she's going to tell the rest of them, and there's no way I'll escape all of them.

I glanced around, and saw an empty car. I rushed forwards and peered through the dirty glass. It was discarded, but looked mostly intact. I heaved open the rusty door, and climbed in. The gas switch was hard to pull, but I was able to get enough leverage to push it down. The cars engine started with a whirr, and I slammed on the gas pedal.

I was steadily getting near the wall as the night drew on. Once I was about fifty feet away, I hit the brakes and got out.

The dust was much more disturbed up here, floating through the air like a thick cloud. I coughed and shielded my eyes as I looked up at the massive towering cliff before me. My knives were already in my hands, and I walked right up to the metal. I stabbed the first one into the steel, ripping a hole through it. My left knife drove into the wall a little higher, and I kept at it until I was a couple feet off the ground. I kept scaling the wall, the wind rising and the temperatures dropping as I got higher and higher.

It was if I was in a sort of trance. The spell was broken when I heard a car engine far below me. I looked down to see Evelyn and Marley's car drive up next to the one I had come in. Charlie, Joan, Will, Bits, Marley, and Evelyn all got out, and wandered around my car. I could see they were confused, and didn't know where I went.

Bits though, she had obviously found my footprints. She followed them to the base of the wall. Confused, she looked up and spotted me hanging like a dead leaf hundreds of feet above their heads.

She gasped with shock and pointed up at me. The others followed her gaze and saw me too. I growled with frustration, under my breath, and kept climbing.

Charlie ran up to the base of the wall.

"Cleo! Come down, it's not safe!" She screamed.

I ignored her, hoping they'd think I couldn't hear them. My eyes stayed glued to the top of the wall, watching it slowly get closer as I climbed higher. Thirty or so feet higher, I looked down and saw the group sitting in a circle, discussing a plan most likely. What could they possibly do? They don't even know why I'm up here.

My arms were getting tired, though. They were shaking and it was harder to pull the knives out of the wall.

I grunted as I drew my arm up and stabbed the blade into the wall a couple inches above me. When I stopped to rest, I glanced up at the top. It was near, could tell, but I wasn't sure if I'd make it.

I heard a loud shout from below me. I glanced down and saw Charlie standing below me, her legs shoulder-width apart and stable. She was holding a Launcher, from who knows where. She was aiming it directly at me. The others were trying to pull it out of her hands, but she was as firm as a rock.

I gritted my teeth and kept climbing, bit by bit. The first grenade whizzed by me, a couple feet off. It exploded in the sky like a silver electric firework.

When I looked down again, Evelyn, Marley, Joan and Will had managed to wrestle her to the ground. Bits was standing firmly between them and the Launcher.

I heard shout again, but this time it was from above me. I looked up and saw WICKED guards standing above me, aiming their weapons at my face.

"Freeze!" One shouted down at me.

The second grenade shot past me and slammed into him. He jerked back, dropping his weapon. He collapsed in a writhing ball, the silver electricity coursing over his body. I looked down and saw Bits smiling, holding the other guards shouted at each other and started shooting at the group below.

As their bullets rained past me, I slowly, carefully, started back up. The guards didn't even realize I had started climbing again until I reached the rim of the top. I rolled over the side, slashing my knives at their legs.

Caught by surprise, they stumbled numbly back, and I sprung up, whipping my leg around and knocking a few over. As they fell, I leaped up and punched one in the face, and kicked him into one running up behind. They tripped over each other and fell as well.

I grabbed one of their guns and ran towards the exit.


	20. Chapter 20

_**Chapter 20**_

The streets inside the walls were bustling with people in white face masks and gloves. As they hurried to and fro through the majestic city, I walked swiftly towards the tallest, most imposing building.

The WICKED headquarters.

The shady-esque alley behind the back was where I decided to put the guard I had knocked out. I thought WICKED was supposed to be full of the smartest people, and yet they make some guards patrol alone.

I took his armor and badge, and snuck inside the door. Since guards are able to bypass the scanners, because they need their weapons, I was able to go through without any problem.

I climbed the front stairs to the elevator. It was already sitting at the bottom when I pressed the up button, but just as it was about to close, Teresa walked in.

She nodded at me, and pressed the button for floor 23.

I noticed the bloody cloth she held in her hand.

"You okay, Miss?" I asked in my manliest voice.

She glanced at me confused, then remembered what she was holding.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's just blood from a test subject that I wanted to experiment on." She said.

I leaned in a little.

"Which subject?" I asked.

She looked at me a little suspiciously, and slid it into her pocket.

"A2." She said.

I turned to face her fully.

"Thomas is here?" I asked, dropping the accent.

She whirled around in surprise.

"Cleo?!" She exclaimed.

I glanced around, but there didn't seem to be any hidden devices, so I nodded.

She inhaled slowly.

"If you want Minho, Thomas and Newt are already here. You can leave." She said, nervously edging towards the door.

I grabbed her arm.

"Newt's not immune." I said quietly.

She looked at me sadly.

"I thought so." Her voice caught in her throat.

Then the elevator stopped and she quickly walked out the doors. I was about to follow her when I heard a voice behind me.

"Well well well, if it isn't our favorite subject." Said the very snarky, arrogant male voice.

Slowly turning around, I saw there was a man standing behind me. He was lanky and tall in build, his beard and hair neatly trimmed, with stupid-looking glasses perched on the bridge of his long nose.

I faced him fully, my feet firmly planted, my chin and shoulders thrown back confidently. The man had a smirk that looked ridiculously like Janson's.

I hefted my weapon in my hand, not aiming at him, but ready if needed.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

The man snorted.

"Of course you don't remember me. You were unconscious. But my name is Ethan, and I was one of the doctors who healed you after the Griever attack." The man said snootily.

I looked around, then back at him.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" I chuffed.

He smiled.

"Well, C24, who else?" His smile was as far from pleasant as could be.

I spark lit inside me, and I raised my weapon.

"I have a name, slinthead." I growled.

He shrugged.

"So do I, but they just call me Doctor." He raised an eyebrow at me.

I raised one back, even though I was still wearing my mask.

"Would you happen to be related to Janson?" I asked.

The man, Ethan, nodded.

"He's my younger, ambitious brother." He said, turning around.

I lowered my weapon, confused.

"Where the shuck are you going, and why the hell would you turn your back on someone holding a weapon to you?" I exclaimed.

He looked back at me, and smiled coldly again.

"Because they'll deal with you." He replied simply.

I started to turn around, but something hit me really hard in the back of my head and the world went dark.

When I woke up, I was in a room that was all white. The ground, walls, and ceiling were all made of the same spongy, soft material. I sat up, rubbing my head. It was throbbing really badly, like it was growing but just didn't have enough space to fit.

I looked up and realized Ethan was sitting in a chair at a desk at one end of the room. Standing on either side of him was a person in a hooded sweatshirt, the hood pulled down over to cover their faces.

It brought back a faded memory, but I couldn't recall it. Ethan looked up as I groaned and pushed myself into a sitting position. He folded his newspaper and put it on his desk.

"How are you feeling, C24?" He asked.

I twitched when he called me that, and my brain shouted at him to call me by my name, but my mouth disobeyed and all I said was:

"Fine."

He nodded, an odd, satisfied smile on his face.

I glanced nervously at his accompaniants, hoping they weren't armed. He noticed my look, and waved at the two figures.

"Oh, these two won't hurt you unless I tell them to." He said nonchalantly.

I glared at him.

"So, how am I supposed to know you won't tell them to hurt me?" I asked him, and crossed my arms.

He smirked, and glanced at the person on his right.

"You don't." He looked back at me.

I stared at him, and he sighed. Standing up, he picked up a folder of paper.

"Do you want to know why I saved you?" He looked up at me.

I nodded slowly, cautiously.

"The board of directors thought it was to study the killzone patterns, how the other reacted when you came back," he stood up and paced around his table, "but I couldn't let you die. There is a special chemical in your brain, and your brain only, that reacts to intense stress, grief, and surprise." He stopped and looked down at the papers in his hand.

"That's why you had gone through all those terrible experiences. It was all planned." He threw the papers back onto his desk.

I stood, shocked, staring at my feet. Slowly, I raised my head.

"So Gabe's death, that was planned?" I asked quietly.

He nodded sadly.

"Unfortunately, it had to be done to activate the chemical. He was originally immune, but the doctors modified him once you reached the WICKED warehouse outside the Maze." His voice sounded heavy with remorse, but it sounded hollow, like he was faking it.

I clenched my fists, and glared at him.

"He was, immune?" I growled.

Ethan nodded again.

I smiled, unclenching my hands and relaxing my muscles. He looked at me, confused. This was not the reaction he expected.

"That explains it." I whispered.

He leaned forward.

"Excuse me?" He asked sharply, still taken by surprise.

My head snapped up, and I leaped forwards, my fist connecting with his jaw. He stumbled back, rubbing his face, and I jumped up, kicking him in the stomach. He fell to the floor, clutching his abdomen.

I stood over him, breathing heavily. I grabbed the neck of his shirt and brought his face closer to mine.

"In case you forgot what I told you shanks through that little beetle thing, I'm going to kill all of you personally if I can." I bared my teeth in a grimace. "And I happen to have one at my mercy."

Ethan cleared his throat.

"Well, not exactly." He croaked.

Just then I was grabbed by the shoulder and flung back against the wall. One of the hooded figures stood where I had been, facing me, protecting the doctor.

Slowly, its hands lifted the hood from it's face, and I once again stood face-to-face with Addy.

His face was ridden with horrible scars, courtesy of me, I suspected. I was momentarily paralyzed by shock, so I could do nothing when he swung at me. My head slammed back against the wall, and I saw a splatter of blood fall and stain the white floor.

I stood up and wiped my face. Ethan had also gotten to his feet, and was standing very cockily, his arms crossed, his hip slightly jutting to the side, and that annoying smirk on his face.

"You said you had me at your mercy, did you? Seems the tables have turned." He snickered.

I glared at him.

"Yeah, but even if you have Addy on your side, it doesn't matter who the other person is. I can still beat both of them and you." I sneered, blood dripping on my teeth.

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"But would you be willing to?" He asked.

As if on signal, the other person raised their hands to their hood and lifted the hood off their head. I choked back a gasp.

It was Charlie.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Chapter 21**_

Meanwhile, outside the walls, the rest of the group was lying unconscious on the dusty earth. WICKED guards had gotten the jump on them and knocked them out to kidnap Charlie. Bits suddenly sat up.

"CHARLIE!" She yelled.

The others jolted awake, and slowly sat up, rubbing their heads.

"What the shuck happened?" Asked Will, who was feeling along the ground for his knife.

Joan stood up and looked at the wall.

"They knocked us out and left us here." She said, mostly to herself.

Marley stretched her arms, reaching up as high as she could. She sighed and crossed them over her chest.

"And they took Charlie!" Bits exclaimed, whirling around.

Joan rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Bits, we'll get her and Cleo back before they finish the mission." She comforted the girl. By they, she meant Thomas and his group.

Bits looked up at her.

"But, what if I go before then?" She asked quietly.

Joan shook her head violently.

"That's not going to happen. We are going to find a cure." She said sternly.

Bits hesitated, then nodded her head.

Marley looked questioningly at them.

"If you "go"? Go where?" She asked.

Joan glared at her.

Evelyn's head snapped around to stare sharply at Marley.

"She's not immune, dumbass." She hissed under her breath.

Marley turned her head to look back at Bits.

"Ooh, sorry, my bad." She smiled awkwardly, and Evelyn face-palmed.

Will rolled his eyes and slowly stood up, supporting himself on the launcher he was holding.

"Once you ladies are done, you can slim it and help me figure out what to do and how the shuck we are going to do it." He said, grunting with the effort.

Marley turned to look at him.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, fine. The shank just hit me really hard." He mumbled.

Evelyn glared at the walls.

"Those bastards. They deserve everything coming for them." She growled under her breath.

Bits started coughing, and Joan looked over at her worriedly. She walked over and thumped her on the back until it subsided.

Marley and Evelyn exchanged a glance, and Will was fumbling around with his weapon, trying to find the trigger.

Joan was standing at the wall, tracing her fingers over the indents made by my knives. Evelyn, Marley, and Will were sitting in a huddle together trying to come up with a plan. Bits had traced the footsteps of the guards and Charlie over the the wall. She squinted and counted them. There had been five guards, so why was there six footprints?

Unless Charlie had gone along with them, which was highly unlikely, given her tendency to fight whenever she was overpowered. But unlike Cleo, that rarely ever succeeded. Bits stood up and traced her hand along the wall until it ran over an indent.

She turned and looked over her shoulder at her friends.

"Hey guys! Over here, I think I found something." She called out to them.

Joan walked over and looked around the indent.

"Could be a secret door, or just a normal dent." She said doubtedly.

Bits slapped her arm gently.

"No, you slinthead. Look how flawless this wall is. If there was a dent, they'd probably fix it." She said, motioning to the expanse of the wall.

Will came up behind them.

"Well, obviously, I can't give you my opinion on this, but if it was a door, how would you open it?" He asked, lightly ruining his palm over the indent.

Bits looked back at Evelyn and Marley, who were gathering up their things. She turned and felt along the wall, crouching down until her fingers touched the ground. There was another indent on the ground, identical to the one on the wall.

The shape was oddly perfect, like a rounded rectangle or cylinder. She recognized it.

Bits turned to look at Will.

"Hey Will, can I see your launcher?" She asked him.

He looked at her, confused.

"Sure, because I can't." He said, handing her the weapon.

Joan looked at him, also confused. Will sighed.

"She asked if she could see the Launcher, and I'm blind, so I said I can't see it." He said exasperatedly.

Joan shook her head.

"No, I understand the joke you tried to make, but why would you give a child a dangerous taser-weapon-shooter thingie?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Bits glared at her.

"You think I can't use a Launcher safely?" She asked indignantly.

Before Joan could answer, Bits put her finger to her mouth.

"No, shush. You don't even know what I'm going to use it for." She said, turning around and kneeling on the ground.

She popped open the latch holding the grenades, and she took two in her hand. She put one in the wall, and the other on the ground.

She stepped back, handing the weapon back to Will, who stared down at it.

"What did you do?" He asked, not raising his head as he felt around the weapon for any changes.

Bits looked at the silver electricity connecting between the two orbs, creating a solid line that cut through the stone and steel until a clear path through the wall was shown.

Joan motioned for them to come, but Bits was already walking in, looking around for any hidden objects.

They reached the other end without meeting anyone else. At one point, Will heard a small clicking sound, and looked behind them, but of course he couldn't see anything. Marley looked too, but she said that there was actually nothing anywhere except the smooth steel walls and ceiling.

When the group had left the shadow of the tunnel, it had started to seal itself back up behind them, until there wasn't even a mark left in the smooth gray wall.

They continued down the streets in the midday sun, trudging along with the crowds of people in a tight formation so they didn't get split up.

Soon, they reached a semi-empty courtyard. Will turned to face the group.

"Okay, I'm just going to take role." He said.

"Joan?"

"Here." She said, shifting on her feet, looking nervously around.

"Evelyn?"

She looked up from a plant she had been studying.

"Here."

"Marley?"

"Here." She called from a bench halfway across the courtyard.

Will looked up.

"Why are you so far away? Get over here." He called at her.

She shrugged and stood up. Will took a deep breath, and it came out as a sigh.

"Alright, and last but not the shank, Bits?"

She raised her hand.

"Here."

Will nodded in satisfaction.

"So at least we're all here. So while we were walking, I devised a plan." He said.

They all looked at him attentively.

He pointed at the WICKED headquarters looming in the distance.

"That there is our target. I bet that's where both of them are. We are going to split up and go after them once we enter that building." He said.

The group nodded, and Bits shuddered.

"We just escaped, and to think we have to go back…." She muttered under her breath.

Joan reached over and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder.

Will cleared his throat.

"So, me and Joan will try and get Cleo, Marley, Evelyn, and Bits are going to get Charlie." He said commandingly.

They nodded, and started off towards the WICKED towers.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Chapter 22**_

I was sitting in the corner, my back to the desk and the people around it. My nosebleed had dried out, but there was still a red streak all down my face, and drops of blood all over my clothes. Even though I was covered in my own blood, I didn't mind. Why Charlie? How long has Charlie been under their control? She was acting extremely strange, not to mention had shot a Launcher at me, but that had all been in the past twenty-four hours.

While my brain struggled to comprehend what had been revealed to me, Ethan clicked his pen against the desk.

"This is exactly the reaction I predicted, but you need to get over it. I'm not allowed to put sedative into you until you surrender willingly." He said, sighing.

I turned around to face him, and flinched when I saw Charlie's face, her bright blue eyes dull with a non-seeing look.

I slowly stood, supporting myself on the wall.

"I'm willing to make a deal, then." I said, wincing as I accidentally touched my face.

Ethan looked up, interested.

"I'm listening." He said intently.

I pointed at the file he was holding.

"Answer all my questions, and I'll go with you." I told him confidently.

He sat back, thinking.

"You're probably going to ask for confidential information, but if it's the only way you'd go willingly….." He crossed his arms. "Ask away." He sighed.

I smiled.

"Okay, first question: how long am I going to be here?" I asked.

Ethan put his feet up on the table.

"You're going to be able to leave once we figure out how to artificially produce the chemical in your brain." He said slowly.

I stared at him.

"And how long will that take?" I asked him, taking my hand off the wall, leaving a little red smear.

He reached a hand forward.

"Please mind the walls, they're a pain to clean." He said calmly.

I glared at him.

"First of all, I doubt it's you who cleans the walls, secondly, you should have considered that before making your henchman punch me in the face." I snarled at him, taking a menacing step forwards.

Ethan clapped his hands together.

"Okay then! You're done with questions already? Let's go." He stood up.

In a flash, I was in front of him, holding a hand to his chest, keeping him from rising any farther.

"You're not going anywhere." I smirked triumphantly.

He looked at me, confused, but with a little spark of fear.

"What do you mean?" He asked slowly, disguising his fear in calmness.

I pointed to Charlie.

"It doesn't matter who you have on your side. If I don't ask my questions, but I still have them, I can keep you here till you die of old age or starvation." I crossed my arms.

Ethan put his head in his hands.

"You stupid, stupid girl." He sneered.

I could feel his muscles tense, and before I could do anything, he grabbed Charlie by the shoulder and held a knife to her throat. She obeyed without struggle.

When I took a step forward, he put a little pressure on, leaving a small drop of red, but she didn't even flinch.

Suddenly, Addy, who was behind me, had grabbed my arms and was holding them behind me, immobilizing them.

I snarled and kicked at him, but he kicked me back. Ethan just stood calmly, holding the knife to Charlie's throat.

Finally, I stopped struggling, and slouched down, tears streaming down my face.

"Fine, take me, but one more condition." I looked up at him, anger sparking in my eyes.

"You have to let her go, or I won't let you take me willingly." I muttered softly.

Ethan smiled triumphantly.

"Finally, you made the right bargain. It's really the only reason we took her." He said, letting her go. Which was his mistake.

I reared back, smashing my head into Addy's face, and then I whirled around, breaking his grasp on my arms, kicking him over and launching myself at Ethan.

But before I got to him, Charlie was in my way. She slammed me with her shoulder, the impact knocking us both over.

She grasped my arms and kicked at my stomach. I twisted in pain, but refused to hurt her. I just curled up and took the blows, one after another. She hit my head hard with her elbow, then slammed it against the floor.

As black spots started swimming my vision, I looked at Ethan.

"Don't forget our deal, you fox-faced bastard." I smiled, a fresh trickle of blood streaming down my cheek. That's going to leave a bruise, I thought.

The next time I opened my eyes, there was bright lights flashing by above me. I shifted my arm and felt a little pinch. I looked at it and saw several tubes stuck in them, leading to plastic bags hanging from poles attached to the bed I was on. On one side, was three bags with a clear liquid dripping into my arm. On the other side was one gently sucking out a transparent bluish-green liquid.

I looked up when the cot stopped moving. A man in a white mask covering his nose and mouth appeared over me, and placed a mask attached to a longer, bigger tube over my mouth. A strange, sweet smell flowed into my nose, and my eyes drifted closed as I fell back into unconsciousness.

The same voice, the same boy. His skin seemed paler than I remembered, and his face was shinier, like he was sweating. There were the flashing lights, the screaming voices, the panic and chaos everywhere around us. But it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that boy. He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me close. He whispered a word into my ear, the same word. Remember. Just as I started drifting away, I saw another boy standing near us. He had dirty blonde hair and tan skin, his brown eyes watching me. It was Gabe.

I sat up, gasping for breath. I looked around the operating room where they had drained the chemical from my brain. I looked at my arms, where the tubes were still attached. I ripped them off and slid my legs around to the side of the bed, standing up.

On the table next to my bed, I noticed a manilla folder. I reached out to pick it up, but I heard a voice from behind me.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you." Ethan said, getting up from the chair he'd been sitting in.

I turned around and saw, of course, Charlie standing next to him.

I put my hands on my hips.

"I thought we had a deal." I hissed.

Ethan nodded.

"And we still do. I said I'd release her, just not exactly when. We were originally never going to release her at all." He said, picking his glasses up off the table and putting them on.

I took a menacing step forwards, and he looked up at me.

"That's a very unwise move, considering what happened last time." He said, nodding in Charlie's direction.

I glanced warily at her, but noticed something different about her. Her eyes were normal and bright, and I could tell she knew she wasn't under their control anymore.

I swallowed, then looked at Ethan, making my face look like I was scared but trying to hide it.

"You don't scare me, fox-face. I can take her on." I growled in a low voice.

Ethan snorted.

"Please, save me the bullshit. You might be a pretty badass girl who lots of boys would fall for, but your soul is dark." He scowled.

I flipped the hair out of my face.

"Wooo, you kiss your mother with that mouth, foxy?" I asked, raising my chin defiantly.

He glared at me.

"We destroyed your trust in people, your ability to love." He snarled, advancing.

I stared him down.

"You sure about that, slinthead?" I asked him, subtly signaling to Charlie.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at me.

"What-" He started to turn around, but Charlie did a flying kick and hit him squarely in the jaw with her shin.

He crumpled to the ground. I took the glass cylinder of liquid from his coat pocket.

"And that's where you're wrong, you lying fox-face son of a bitch." I said smugly.

I looked up and saw Charlie staring at me. I smiled, and she rushed forward, embracing me in her arms.

"I'm so sorry, Cleo!" She cried, burying her head in my shoulder.

I pushed her away.

"No, don't do that. We still have to get to the others. They'll be looking for us." I said, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before walking towards the door.

Just as we left the room, the sirens started blaring. I looked over at Charlie, and we both nodded in understanding. Thomas was here.

We were running down the hall towards the fire exit, when we passed an operation room with a boy banging his fists against the door. My first thought was that a crank had escaped, but then I realized his skin was normal, pale as it was. Then I caught his eyes, and realized who it was.

It was Minho.

I ran to the door, and pressed my hand against the glass, he did the same, matching my hand, even though his was bigger. I took the ID card I had swiped off Ethan and slid it in the card slot on the side of the door.

It slid open with a hiss, and he fell into my arms. I thought I'd need to support him, but he had a surprising amount of strength left. He embraced me in his arms, holding me against his chest. I could hear his heart beating under my cheek. I felt tears start to stream down my cheek.

He gently wiped them away, and I looked up at him.

"I wish we could stay longer, but you need to go help your friends." I told him, pulling away.

His eyes hardened and he nodded. Stepping forward, he quickly kissed me, then turned and hurried down the hall towards some very loud shouting.

I smiled.

"Smart man." I muttered under my breath.

Charlie looked at me, puzzled.

"What?" She asked.

I glanced at her.

"Wherever there's intense fighting, you better bet that's where Thomas is." I looked down the hall where Minho had just disappeared.

Charlie nodded, and then we hurried down the halls towards our escape.


	23. Chapter 23

_**Chapter 23**_

Fire and flame

Darkness in the sky

I learned how to play the game

Learned how to fly

You hit me down

Made me forget everything

But you're always scared

Of me remembering something

WICKED in your ways

Calling out my name

Saying the end is why

You let us all die

I'm not scared of you

I've faced Death before

I know your weaknesses

You got rid of mine

 _ **And this one's for fun :P (I didn't make it)**_

Jingle bells

Gally smells

WICKED all the way

Oh what fun

It is to run

In a Griever infested Maze

Hey!


	24. Chapter 24

**_Chapter 24_**

The group sat crouched over a rough map of the WICKED layout. Two lines were drawn, a green one for how Joan and Will were going to retrieve Cleo, and a blue one for Charlie.

Joan nodded, and they split, going their separate ways, each group holding their own walkie-talkie so they could contact each other.

Inside the building, a red-flashing alarm was going off, people in lab coats rushing for safety, armored guards running and shouting angrily, confused. Will and Joan were able to slip past them easily, reaching some stairs.

A crackle on the radio caught their attention. Will pressed the receive button and a strange frequency came through.

"Hello?" A staticy voice said from the device.

Will glanced up at Joan, then pressed the send button.

"Who's this?" He asked cautiously.

It crackled, and a normal sound came through on the other end.

"Hey guys. Marley found a control room, and another walkie talkie. That's just her." said Bit's voice from the speaker.

Will nodded at Joan. He pressed the send button again.

"Do you have eyes on them?" He asked.

The speaker crackled for a minute.

"No, but I've found Thomas and Newt, they have Minho with them, so Cleo can't be that far." Marley responded.

Joan grabbed the walkie from Will.

"Where?" She asked into it.

"Umm, somewhere on floor 23, I think." She said with uncertainty.

Joan sighed, then got up and started limp-running towards the stairs. The smooth steel steps ran up for miles, it seemed. The building was huge.

As they hurried up the stairs, they heard loud shouting from above them. They looked out the window just in time to see three figures fly out window a couple levels above them. They landed with a splash in the pool below.

Joan looked up and saw Janson yelling down at the figures. The middle one flipped him off. That's when she realized it was Thomas, and the other two were Minho and Newt. She grabbed Will's shoulder.

"It's them, Thomas, Newt and Minho. We need to hurry." She pulled him up off his knees and pulled him along as she raced up the stairs.

Once they reached floor 23, Joan opened the door and they ran down the halls. Joan skidded to a stop when she saw a card lying on the ground. She picked it up and read it out loud.

"Dr. Ethan Smoke, he's their top surgeon and, oh look at this, not literally, because you're blind, but he has 3 PhDs, whatever those are." She read, handing the card to Will.

He took it from her, and ran his hands over the braille on the back.

"I can't read the blind people's language, but I think before WICKED, I remember a PhD was like a title that said you earned it in a specific field or somethin'." He handed the card back to Joan.

She put the card in her pocket.

"So what's it doing just lying here?" She asked, pointing to the spot where it had been.

Will walked up to the door, which had a small labeled plate next to it. He touched it with his finger, searching for the bumps.

"Can you read what it says?" He asked Joan.

She schooched him over and peered at it.

"It says Subject A7, The Leader." She read, squinting to read the fine print.

She heard a small intake of breath from Will. She turned to look at him.

"Do you know who that is?" She asked.

Will nodded.

"It's Minho." He responded blankly.

Joan whirled around to look at the stairs they had just come up.

"That means we must have just missed Cleo at least." She said.

They hurried back down the stairs, and almost collided with me and Charlie, who were running back up the stairs after seeing the boys jump out the window.

Joan's eyes lit up as soon as she recognized me.

"Cleo!" She exclaimed, and pulled me into a hug, despite my futile attempts to protest.

Charlie stood to the side awkwardly, shuffling her feet as she glanced at Joan and Will with uncertainty.

Joan glanced over at her, and her eyes sparked with fire. She advanced on her, and Charlie backed against the wall.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Joan hissed at her.

Charlie looked at her steadily.

"WICKED had control of my brain." She said calmly.

Joan looked at me over her shoulder, searching for confirmation. I nodded, and she backed away, still glaring at Charlie.

Will walked up to Charlie, and patted her shoulder.

"Give her time." He said.

Charlie narrowed her eyes at the ground.

"It's not like it's my bloody fault, it was against my shucking will." She mumbled under her breath.

Will sighed.

"Yeah, I know. But she's not in her best mind right now." He said, looking back at our friend, who had gone to stand by the window.

Charlie gasped.

"Has Bits gotten worse?" She asked quietly.

He shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but she's obviously worried about her, so maybe." He looked back at us his face stony but his eyes betraying his worry.

Charlie sniffed.

"That doesn't give her an excuse to be a bitch to me. I hate what I did as much as she does." She said defensively.

I nodded. At least I agreed with her on that.

When we looked up, Joan was already walking down the stairs. We scrambled after her, surprised she hadn't said anything.

Joan was holding the walkie-talkie in her hand.

"Guys, we found both of them." She said, to Marley, Bits, and Evelyn.

Will snorted.

"More like they found us." he muttered under his breath.

Joan glared at him, then pressed the receive button. Suddenly, the whole building started to shake and tremble, explosives going off down below. She looked at us, panicked, and we rushed towards the control room.

We were intercepted by Marey, who was rushing to the front room. She skidded to a halt when she saw us charging down the hall.

Charlie stopped.

"Where's Evelyn and Bits?" She asked.

Marley shrugged.

"I have no clue. I tried to walkie-talkie them, but there was no answer." She said, waving her walkie-talkie in the air.

Joan's brow creased.

"We need to find them, and fast." She said, leading the way back down the hall.

"Yeah, no kidding." I muttered under my breath as we followed her. Will shot me a quick glare.

We rushed towards where Evelyn and Bits should have been. I couldn't hear or see them, but they were supposed to be scouring the test lab areas.

Just as the pair came into view, a tremendous explosion shook the building, way bigger than any of the others before. In fact, I thought I heard cracking and creaking, like the structure could barely keep it's form.

As soon as she saw us, Bits rushed forward and embraced me and Charlie in a bear hug. Charlie smiled and hugged her back. I patted her back, but kept my whole body tense to let her know to let go.

She got the message, and Bits let go of me, a huge grin still covering her face.

"When they said they found you guys, I was so happy! And scared, because I didn't know if Charlie was still being controlled or not." She said.

I stared at her.

"You knew Charlie was being controlled?" I asked her.

Bits shrugged.

"I didn't find out by myself. Aris told me that the radars back at base had picked up electrical activity in her brain." She explained.

Charlie looked at her even more suspicious.

"Weren't we supposed to cut all contact with base?" She asked, confused.

Bits looked don and shuffled her feet, going quiet. She obviously didn't want to tell us how she got the information.

"Did Aris send you a letter or something?" Joan asked her.

Bits looked at her incredulously.

"How would he get a piece of paper to me in a couple hours like that? No, it wasn't that." She said, mumbling the last bit.

Will crossed his arms.

"So what then? Did the shank send you brain mail or somethin'?" He asked gruffly.

Bits looked at him in a very strange way, like she didn't know whether to say that was wrong or not.

Joan grabbed her shoulders, making Bits face her.

"Is he right?" She asked seriously.

Bits looked away, her her hair falling over her face and casting it in shadow.

I snorted.

"Probably means yes." I commented.

Joan glared at me, but Bits didn't react.

Will cleared his throat, the tension obviously making him nervous.

"Nice chatting ladies, but we need to get the shuck out of here before it falls on our heads." He said.

Evelyn and Marley agreed with him, and this time Evelyn took the lead and lead us towards the exit.

Just as the door came into view around the corner, we heard a loud shout from behind us.

"Stop!." Yelled the voice.

We froze, and slowly turned around.

Ethan was standing behind us, his launcher aimed particularly at me. He was breathing heavily, and his hands clenched the weapon so tight, his knuckles were turning white.

"You can't escape." He hissed slowly.

The others were confused, but me and Charlie turned to face him.

"Well, we got away from you once, so we can do it again." Charlie huffed.

Ethan's mouth twisted into an evil smile.

"You shouldn't be so sure of that. That girl-" He said , pointing to Bits,"she has a stabilizer in her, keeping her from feeling the effects or showing the symptoms of the Flare." He held up a small device.

"And this here is the control." He pointed it at us.

"Hand yourselves in, or I turn it off." He snarled.

Joan stepped in front of Bits protectively, and me and Charlie balled our fists, ready to fight. Ethan's face hardened, and his finger tightened around the trigger.

Suddenly, a flash of motion rushed at Ethan from behind. It leaped at him, knocking him down and snatching the gun away from him.

The figure stopped, and Addy was standing between us and Ethan, pointing the Launcher at the Doctor's chest.

"I wouldn't be so cocky before I count my prisoners, if I was you." Addy smirked, also holding up the remote.

Ethan looked down at his hand, where Addy had very quickly snatched the device from him. He glared at us.

"I can still activate it from the WICKED control room." He snarled.

Addy snorted.

"But I can reactivate it again with this." He waved the remote around.

This time, Ethan laughed.

"That's where your wrong, boy. Once it's deactivated, it can't be changed." He smiled, showing all his teeth, obviously pleased with himself.

Addy ran and jumped at Ethan, tackling him to the ground. The two were locked in a furious brawl on the ground, and it quickly became obvious that Addy's time in the Maze made him several times stronger than Ethan.

Addy looked up at us.

"GO! What are you waiting for?" He yelled at us, punching Ethan in the face.

I nodded, and we turned and ran back down the hall, Evelyn picking up the Launcher Addy had dropped, and Bits got the remote.

"Ima take charge of my own brain, thank you very much." She muttered under her breath.

I saw Joan glance at Bits and smile.

Once we got around the corner, we decided to walk, for Joan and Will's sakes. There was small pieces of debris and discarded items littered all over the main room.

We were just walking by a discarded gun, when Bits bent down to pick it up.

"Watch out!" Someone yelled.

Instinctively I looked up, and saw a huge piece of the ceiling had decided to fall, and it was heading straight towards Bits.

Joan screamed and rushed forwards, but the huge piece of concrete smashed down on the ground, and she shied back, shielding her eyes from the cloud of dust that blew up when it hit. There was an indistinct scream of pain.

When the dust cleared, Bits was sitting a few feet away, unhurt but obviously shaken, her eyes wide and her body trembling.

Evelyn collapsed to her knees next to the rock, tears streaming down her face. Marley's legs and bottom torso were caught under the rock, which hit right after she pushed Bits out of the way. A small pool of blood was already spreading from under the rock.

Will rushed over and also feel to the ground. Evelyn reached out her hand and brushed Marley's hand with her own.

"Marley why did you do it?" She whispered, her voice cracking.

Marley shook her head, a grimace of pain on her face.

"I had…to..." She gasped, her teeth clenching in pain.

Evelyn shook her head and a new stream of tears rolled down her face. Marley looked over at Bits, smiled when she saw that the girl was fine.

"At least…. At least I did it right." She coughed, blood dripping from her nose and mouth.

Bits crawled over and grabbed her hand.

"Marley, you didn't have to…" She cried.

Marley just smiled, and kept smiling, even when she wasn't breathing anymore.

Evelyn slowly reached out her other hand and closed Marley's blank eyes, and stood up as the building rumbled again.

"We have to go, like right now." She said stonely.

The rest of us nodded and got up silently. We picked up our things and rushed out the front door, leaving behind Marley and Addy.

We down an alley, and when we reached the other end of it, we saw mobs of cranks carrying torches and yelling for WICKED to surrender.

Evelyn stared at them, then grabbed her pistol and Launcher, and walked in that direction.

I grabbed her arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked her.

She whipped around, throwing off my grip. Glaring at me, she yanked up the sleeve of her shirt. I gasped and stepped back. Her arm was covered in black veins.

"I'm a crank, and I belong out there." She hissed, pointing at the crowd.

She stood and looked at all of us one by one. Her eyes landed on Bits, and she sniffed.

"If Marley thought you were willing to risk a life for, then I am too." She said, handing Bits her Launcher. She looked at me, and handed me the bracelet Gabe made me. I just stood there, shocked. She nodded, a last farewell, then charged, yelling a battle cry, towards the WICKED guard vehicles.

I watched as she crouched behind a tree, aiming at a man in a black suit covered in armor. Turning back to what was left of our group, I nodded, pulling the leather over my hand and tightening the strings, and we rushed back towards the walls, me in the lead this time.


End file.
